PREVALENCE OF PULMONARY TUBERCULOSIS IN GBOKO, BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

Pulmonary Tuberculosis (PTB) is a major public health problem in Nigeria. It was declared a national emergency in 2006 after which an emergency plan for the control of TB in Nigeria was developed. The country is currently ranked 10th among the 22 high TB burden countries in the world. Tuberculosis is an important opportunistic infection in HIV/AIDS. Benue state is the highest HIV endemic state in Nigeria and investigation of tuberculosis cases and Mycobacterial resistance patterns are needed. A retrospective study with a review of reports of Mycobacterium tuberculosis prevalence in Gboko, Benue state was carried out from January, 2019 to June, 2019 in Gboko General Hospital, Gboko by the staining techniques and Cepheid GeneXpert MTB/RIF system. Pulmonary tuberculosis was detected in 18.2% (n=54/296) of the total sample. Rifampicin resistance of 3.4% (10/296) was detected with an HIV/MTB co-infection rate of 4.4% (13/296) of the pulmonary tuberculosis positive cases detected with a total of 27% (80/296) of the test population positive for HIV. (X 2 = 6.51; p