Tuberculosis Preventive Treatment Scale-Up Among Antiretroviral Therapy Patients - 16 Countries Supported by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, 2017-2019

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death among persons living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. In 2018, an estimated 251,000 persons living with HIV infection died from TB, accounting for one third of all HIV-related deaths and one sixth of all TB deaths (1). TB preventive treatment (TPT) is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) for persons living with HIV infection without active TB disease (i.e., adults with a negative clinical symptom screen for cough, fever, night sweats, or weight loss; and children with a negative clinical screen for cough, fever, contact with a person with TB, or poor weight gain) and either without* a tuberculin skin test result or with a known positive result (2). TPT decreases morbidity and mortality among persons living with HIV infection, independent of antiretroviral therapy (ART) (3); however, in 2017, fewer than 1 million of the estimated 21.3 million ART patients started TPT worldwide. Most patients receiving TPT were treated with 6 months of daily isoniazid (1,4). This report summarizes data on TB symptom screening and TPT initiation and completion among ART patients in 16 countries supported by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) during April 1, 2017-March 31, 2019. During this period, these 16 countries accounted for approximately 90% of PEPFAR-supported ART patients. During April 1, 2017-September 30, 2018, TB symptom screening increased from 54% to 84%. Overall, nearly 2 million ART patients initiated TPT, and 60% completed treatment during October 1, 2017-March 31, 2019. Although TPT initiations increased substantially, completion among those who initiated TPT increased only from 55% to 66%. In addition to continuing gains in initiation, improving retention after initiation and identifying barriers to TPT completion are important to increase TPT scale-up and reduce global TB mortality.