Conceived and designed the experiments: KPC KMDC. Analyzed the data: CMY. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HOW AAK TM HM AK LN. Contributed to the writing of the manuscript: CMY HOW AAK TM HM AK LN KPC KMDC.
In Kenya, the comparative incidences of tuberculosis among persons with and without HIV have not been described, and the differential impact of public health interventions on tuberculosis incidence in the two groups is unknown.
We estimated annual tuberculosis incidence stratified by HIV status during 2006–2012 based on the numbers of reported tuberculosis patients with and without HIV infection, the prevalence of HIV infection in the general population, and the total population. We also made crude estimates of annual tuberculosis incidence stratified by HIV status during 1998–2012 by assuming a constant ratio of HIV prevalence among tuberculosis patients compared to the general population.
Tuberculosis incidence among both adults with HIV and adults without HIV increased during 1998–2004 then remained relatively stable until 2007. During 2007–2012, tuberculosis incidence declined by 28–44% among adults with HIV and by 11–26% among adults without HIV, concurrent with an increase in antiretroviral therapy uptake. In 2012, tuberculosis incidence among adults with HIV (1,839–1,936 cases/100,000 population) was still eight times as high as among adults without HIV (231–238 cases/100,000 population), and approximately one third of tuberculosis cases were attributable to HIV.
Although tuberculosis incidence has declined among adults with and without HIV, the persistent high incidence of tuberculosis among those with HIV and the disparity between the two groups are concerning. Early diagnosis of HIV, early initiation of antiretroviral therapy, regular screening for tuberculosis, and isoniazid preventive therapy among persons with HIV, as well as tuberculosis control in the general population, are required to address these issues.
Despite declining incidence in recent years, tuberculosis remains a leading cause of death among infectious diseases globally, second only to HIV
HIV is an important driver of the tuberculosis epidemic in Kenya, which is classified as a high-burden country for both tuberculosis and HIV. In 2012, 39% of all reported tuberculosis cases in Kenya occurred in persons living with HIV
Provision of antiretroviral therapy and tuberculosis preventive therapy to persons living with HIV have been shown to substantially reduce tuberculosis incidence in this population
Comparing tuberculosis incidence among persons with and without HIV can uncover distinct trends in the epidemiology of tuberculosis in these two populations
We estimated annual tuberculosis incidence among adults living with HIV and adults without HIV in Kenya during 2006–2012 based on the numbers of reported tuberculosis patients with and without HIV infection, the prevalence of HIV infection in the general population, and the total population. Because our data source for prevalence of HIV infection was limited to adults aged 15–64 years, we focused our analysis on this age group. We determined the population attributable fraction of tuberculosis cases due to HIV by first calculating the difference between overall tuberculosis incidence and estimated incidence of tuberculosis among persons without HIV, then dividing this value by the overall tuberculosis incidence.
We used data from the 2007 and 2012 Kenya AIDS Indicator Surveys (KAIS)
We obtained numbers of new tuberculosis cases reported each year in adults during 2006–2012 from the Kenya Ministry of Health Division of Leprosy, Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (DLTLD). Because case counts were disaggregated only by pediatric (age <15 years) and adult (age ≥15 years) groups, we were unable to exclude patients aged >64 years. We therefore included all adult cases in our analysis and assumed them to all be aged under 64 years. We also performed a sensitivity analysis in which we instead assumed 95% of tuberculosis cases among adults to have occurred in those aged 15–64 years, based on the age distribution of adult tuberculosis patients in select provinces for which disaggregated data were available. For each year, we obtained the numbers of adult tuberculosis patients who had HIV test results and the number with HIV-positive results.
We made upper-bound estimates for the total number of adult tuberculosis patients with HIV by assuming the HIV prevalence in patients without HIV test results to be the same as in patients with HIV test results. We made lower-bound estimates by assuming the prevalence of HIV infection in patients without HIV test results to be the same as in the general adult population.
We obtained data on the numbers of adults in Kenya receiving antiretroviral therapy, by year, from the National AIDS and STI Control Program. We assumed that the number of adults aged >64 years receiving antiretroviral therapy was negligible. We calculated antiretroviral therapy uptake among adults (i.e., the proportion of adults living with HIV who are receiving antiretroviral therapy) each year during 2006–2012 using the estimated population of adults aged 15–64 living with HIV in Kenya (method described above). This calculation of antiretroviral therapy uptake reflects the overall proportion of people living with HIV on therapy, and does not describe uptake according to national guidelines, nor the effect of changes in guidelines over the study period.
To evaluate trends over a longer time period than the years for which availability of HIV test results for tuberculosis patients would allow, we obtained number of adult tuberculosis cases by year from 1998, the first year when the estimated case detection rate exceeded 70%
All data used in this manuscript represent publically available information. Annual numbers of reported tuberculosis cases, HIV test results for tuberculosis patients, and numbers of adults receiving antiretroviral therapy are available by request from the Kenya Ministry of Health (P.O. Box 30016, Nairobi, Kenya; telephone: +254-20-717077;
The project was determined not to be human subjects research by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and did not require approval by an institutional review board.
The number of new tuberculosis cases reported by year in Kenya during 2006–2012 is shown in
Total numbers of new tuberculosis cases (orange line), new tuberculosis cases in patients with negative HIV test result (blue line), new tuberculosis cases in patients with positive HIV test result (red line), and new tuberculosis cases in patients with unknown HIV test result (green line).
| Year | New tuberculosis patients | Proportion with HIV test result | Proportion with positive result among those tested |
| 2006 | 104,935 | 59.50% | 51.30% |
| 2007 | 106,261 | 78.30% | 47.10% |
| 2008 | 99,807 | 82.60% | 44.00% |
| 2009 | 99,354 | 87.50% | 42.80% |
| 2010 | 95,604 | 91.10% | 40.30% |
| 2011 | 93,964 | 93.20% | 38.20% |
| 2012 | 89,143 | 93.90% | 37.20% |
Upper- and lower-bound estimates of tuberculosis incidence among adults aged 15–64 years with (solid black line) and without (solid grey line) HIV infection, and proportion of adults aged 15–64 years with HIV infection who were receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) (dashed black line).
In 2012, 32–34% of tuberculosis cases among adults aged 15–64 years in Kenya were attributable to HIV (
Upper- and lower-bound estimates of population attributable fraction of incident tuberculosis attributable to HIV among adults aged 15–64 years.
To assess the robustness of our estimate, we performed sensitivity analyses to determine how making different assumptions about the age distribution of tuberculosis patients would change our results. Rather than assuming a negligible number of tuberculosis patients over 64 years of age, we assumed 95% of tuberculosis cases among adults to have occurred in those aged 15–64 years, based on the age distribution of adult tuberculosis patients in select regions for which disaggregated data were available. We then tested two assumptions for the age distribution of positive HIV test results: either that all positive HIV test results in adults occurred among those aged 15–64 years or that the proportion of adult tuberculosis patients with positive HIV test results was the same among those aged 15–64 years as among those over aged 64 years. Using either set of assumptions changed our estimates by less than 10%, and overall trends in tuberculosis incidence during the analysis period remained the same.
The number of reported tuberculosis cases in Kenya and the estimated prevalence of HIV infection in adults based on the EPP model
Adults are defined as persons ≥15 years of age. (A) Reported tuberculosis cases in adults (solid line) and estimated prevalence of HIV infection in the general adult population (dashed line), (B) estimated tuberculosis incidence among adults with (dashed line) and without (solid line) HIV infection, (C) estimated population attributable fraction of tuberculosis cases attributable to HIV among adults.
Using reported HIV test results among tuberculosis patients and estimates of HIV prevalence from population-based surveys, we estimated tuberculosis incidence among adults in Kenya, stratified by HIV status. Tuberculosis incidence among adults living with HIV and among adults without HIV both appear to have declined since 2007. However, despite success in the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy in Kenya, tuberculosis incidence among adults living with HIV in 2012 was still nearly 2,000 per 100,000 population, roughly eight times as high as among adults without HIV. Furthermore, during 2006–2012, over 30% of new adult tuberculosis cases were attributable to HIV while the prevalence of HIV infection in the adult population ranged from 6–7%, suggesting the disproportionate burden of tuberculosis borne by persons living with HIV.
With an overall tuberculosis incidence of 272 per 100,000 population in 2012, the annual rate of decline of less than 6% observed over the past three years in Kenya
Antiretroviral therapy has been shown to substantially decrease tuberculosis incidence in persons living with HIV, particularly when it is initiated while CD4 counts are still comparatively high
However, while the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy programs in Kenya over the past several years has been impressive, almost two thirds of adults living with HIV in Kenya were not receiving antiretroviral therapy in 2012
While continued scale-up of antiretroviral therapy programs is important, multiple studies have suggested that tuberculosis incidence among persons on antiretroviral therapy and with high CD4 counts still exceeds incidence in the HIV-negative population
World Health Organization guidelines recommend routine symptom-based screening for tuberculosis among persons living with HIV and provision of tuberculosis preventive therapy for persons with a negative symptom screen
Although tuberculosis disproportionately affects persons living with HIV, much transmission of tuberculosis is driven by persons without HIV, who typically remain contagious for longer periods of time
Interventions aimed at reducing transmission of HIV may also have the indirect benefit of reducing tuberculosis incidence. Our crude analysis suggests that during 1998–2007, the proportion of tuberculosis cases attributable to HIV declined by roughly 50%, driven by a decline of similar magnitude in HIV prevalence in the overall population. Thus, further reductions in HIV transmission could decrease the pool of vulnerable persons who are at higher risk of developing tuberculosis, which in turn should decrease new tuberculosis cases.
Our analysis was subject to several limitations. The proportion of tuberculosis patients with unknown HIV status, particularly during early years of the analysis period, prevented us from making point estimates of incidence. In addition, because tuberculosis case data were incompletely disaggregated by age, we assumed a negligible number of tuberculosis patients over 64 years of age to match the age group to which the KAIS estimates correspond. However, sensitivity analyses suggested that making different assumptions based on the age distribution of adult tuberculosis patients in districts where more detailed data were available would have changed our estimates by less than 10%, and the same trends would have been observed.
The lack of recorded HIV test results for tuberculosis cases reported before 2006 forced us to make crude estimates to analyze trends in tuberculosis incidence before 2006. These crude estimates relied on the assumption of a constant prevalence ratio of HIV infection between tuberculosis patients and the general population when this ratio may in fact have changed over time. Furthermore, the prevalence of HIV infection used in the crude estimates came from a mathematical model based on HIV prevalence data from anonymous serosurveys among pregnant women attending public antenatal clinics, although the projection curves for the model were calibrated using national estimates of HIV prevalence from historical population-based household surveys
Finally, our model did not take into account changes in tuberculosis case detection rate or treatment success rate over time. Although programmatic estimates suggest case detection rates between 70–85% starting in 1998
In conclusion, the decline in tuberculosis incidence both among adults living with HIV and adults without HIV suggests the success of tuberculosis control efforts in Kenya in recent years and likely the effect of expanded HIV testing and antiretroviral therapy programs. However, the persistent high incidence of tuberculosis among adults living with HIV is cause for concern, given that tuberculosis remains the leading cause of death in people with HIV. A concerted effort aimed at decreasing transmission by controlling tuberculosis in the general population should be combined with specific interventions among persons living with HIV to reduce tuberculosis incidence among this population.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent an official position of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.