Prevalence of triple viral infections of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B and C among tuberculosis patients and associated risk factors: The case of West Arsi Zone, Ethiopia

Tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus and hepatitis B and C infections are serious public health problems in Ethiopia. This study was conducted to assess the prevalence of triple viral infections and associated factors among tuberculosis patients who were on anti-tuberculosis treatment in the year 2011/12 in West Arsi Zone, Ethiopia. A cross sectional study design was conducted among 374 TB patients who were on first line anti-TB treatment. Simple random sampling technique was employed to draw the study subjects until the calculated sample size was achieved. Blood samples were collected to determine the HIV serostatus by rapid HIV testing kits; whereas the hepatitis B and C sero-status was determined by instant one step HBsAg and Flavicheck-HCVWB kits, respectively. Socio-demographic and risk factors information was collected and analysed using univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Injection drug users were excluded from this study. From a total of 374 tuberculosis patients enrolled, TB-HIV co-infection was found to be 56 (14.97%) among which 5 (8.92%) hepatitis B and 4 (7.14%) were hepatitis C triple infected. The overall TB-HIV-Hepatitis triple infection prevalence was 2.4% (9/374). Though the current level of triple viral infections among TB patients seems to be low, an integrated program for treatment, prevention and control strategy is crucial to be considered in TB patient management. Key words: Co-infection, HBV, HCV, HIV, TB, triple infection, West Arsi Zone, Ethiopia.