BACKGROUND

People living with the human immunodeficiency virus have a higher risk of developing active tuberculosis disease. Human immunodeficiency virus infected pregnant women are at a much higher risk of getting active tuberculosis infection, partly due to immune modulation. However, very little is known about the epidemiology of tuberculosis among pregnant women infected with the virus, particularly in resource-limited settings where the burdens of these infections are substantial. Hence, this study aimed to estimate tuberculosis incidence and identify its risk factors among human immunodeficiency virus infected pregnant women in northwest Ethiopia.

METHODS

An institutional-based retrospective follow-up study was conducted among pregnant women who were enrolled in option B+ prevention of mother to child transmission service between June 2013 and April 2021 in Pawe district. The Kaplan-Meier survival curve and Weibull regression model were used to estimate survival probability and identify risk factors of tuberculosis, respectively. The best model between the Cox and parametric models was chosen using the Akaike and Bayesian information criteria.

RESULT

Out of 289 human immunodeficiency virus infected pregnant women included in the final analysis, 29 (10.03 %) developed active tuberculosis. The overall incidence of tuberculosis was 17.4 per 1000 person-months of observation (95 % CI: 12.1, 25.1). Lack of isoniazid preventive therapy (AHR: 6.68, 95 % CI: 2.67, 16.7), new enrollment to care (AHR: 2.62, 95 % CI: 1.14, 6.03), under-nutrition (AHR: 5.09, 95 % CI: 2.02, 12.83), low CD4 count (AHR: 2.61, 95 % CI: 1.01, 6.78), and suboptimal antiretroviral therapy adherence (AHR: 3.17, 95 % CI: 1.46, 6.86) were predictors of tuberculosis among HIV-positive pregnant women.

CONCLUSION

This study found a high incidence of tuberculosis among human immunodeficiency virus infected pregnant women. Thus, strengthening the provision of tuberculosis preventive therapy, reinforcing adherence support, and controlling under-nutrition should be considered to decrease the risk of tuberculosis.