South Africa’s TB and HIV situation “can be likened to a twin tornado…that together has results that are catastrophic”, Dr Prashini Moodley, head of Infection Prevention and Control at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, told IAS 2009 today.
She said: “The overall load of bacterial cells in the population is increasing exponentially and the number of mutants is also increasing exponentially.”
Moodley said the high HIV prevalence, increased incidence of smear positive and smear negative cases, high prevalence of resistant TB (MDR and XDR), rate of hospital-acquired transmission and presence of successful strains were all fuelling the current TB epidemic.
She proposed three important steps to reign in TB: rapid diagnostic tests for smear negative and resistant TB; accelerating the antiretroviral roll out and offering the drugs above 200 CD4 counts; and improved infection prevention measures in wards and outpatient clinics.

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