HIV prevalence among persons suspected of tuberculosis: policy implications for India.

Background: HIV testing of persons referred for tuberculosis diagnosis (TB suspects) is recommended by World Health Organization but is not a policy in India, where HIV prevalence among TB suspects has never been reported. The current Indian policy of offering HIV testing only to TB cases may limit opportunities for early HIV diagnosis and treatment.

Methods: All adult TB suspects examined for diagnostic sputum microscopy in Mandya district (2 million population), in December 2010, were offered voluntary HIV counseling and testing.

Sustaining PPM-DOTS: the case of Pimpri Chinchwad, Maharashtra, India.

Background: Globally, Public-Private Mix (PPM) models of service delivery are recommended as a strategy for improving tuberculosis (TB) control. Several models of PPM-DOTS have been initiated under the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) in India, but scaling up and sustaining successful projects has remained a challenge.

Aim: This paper examines factors accounting for the sustainability of a PPM-DOTS initiated in 1998 in Pimpri Chinchwad (PC), a city in Maharashtra, India.

Drug resistance pattern of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in seropositive and seronegative HIV-TB patients in Pune, India.

Background & Objective: Tuberculosis is the commonest opportunistic disease in persons infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Emergence of drug resistant isolates of M. tuberculosis highlights the need for continuous monitoring of drug resistance to antituberculosis drugs.