HIV, TB, and mental illness in a health clinic for the homeless.

The authors reviewed the medical records of both mentally ill and non-mentally ill patients in a clinic for the homeless population of New Orleans. The records of all psychiatric patients (n = 52) and a randomly selected comparison group (n = 236) of clinic patients without mental illness were chosen for review. Five of the 52 homeless mentally ill who were tested for HIV had a positive test (9.6%), as did 7 of the 129 homeless people without mental illness (5.4%). Regarding TB, only 5 of the 29 mentally ill tested for TB were PPD positive (17.2%), as compared to 34 (29.3%) of the non-mentally ill, a strong trend (r = 0.11, p = 0.09). Differing trends were found regarding HIV and TB in the two homeless groups under study. Further work with a larger sample is needed to determine the factors, if any, which facilitate the spread of HIV and inhibit that of TB.