A systematic review of published literature describing factors associated with tuberculosis recurrence in people living with HIV in Africa

Background: A summary of factors associated with recurrent tuberculosis (TB) in the African HIV-infected population is lacking. We performed a systematic review to address this.
Methods: We performed a literature search within PubMed and The WHO Global Library with specific inclusion and ex- clusion criteria to identify manuscripts emanating from the African continent which potentially described factors associated with recurrent TB in persons living with HIV.
Results: The literature search yielded 52 unique manuscripts, of which only 4 manuscripts were included in the final sys- tematic review following application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Baseline CD4 count, baseline HIV viral load, a positive tuberculin skin test, prior active TB disease, cutaneous hypersensitivity reaction to treatment, having < 3 lung zones affected by prior TB disease, and anaemia were associated with recurrent TB in HIV-infected individuals, whilst age and antiretroviral status were not.
Conclusion: The lack of studies describing recurrent TB in Africa which stratify results by HIV-status is a hindrance to understanding risk factors for recurrent TB in this population. This might be overcome by implementing guidelines related to the publishing of data from observational studies in peer-reviewed medical journals reporting recurrent TB in populations with a high-burden of HIV infection.