Materia Medica Malaysiana

Tuberculosis on the rise among HIV patients

PENANG: Six per cent of the total number of tuberculosis (TB) cases in Malaysia involved HIV patients and the number is increasing yearly.

Health Ministry Disease Control (Infectious Diseases) Division deputy director Dr Nirmal Singh also said that if a person suffering from HIV was exposed to TB, he would show signs of TB earlier compared to a person free from HIV.

“Most of us were exposed to TB when we were younger and the germs were then locked up somewhere in our body as our good health prevented it from affecting us.

“But when we got older and if our health begins to get worse, then we might start showing signs of TB,” he said.

He said this after the launching of a two-day national TB symposium by Health Ministry parliamentary secretary Lee Kah Choon at a hotel here yesterday.

Lee said the number of TB cases nationwide have increased to 15,912 last year compared to 14,830 cases in 2002.

He said the increase was due to the change in the TB reporting system introduced last year, which resulted in more cases being reported.

The symposium was jointly organised by Universiti Sains Malaysia’s School of Pharmaceutical Science’s TB Research Group and National Poison Centre and the ministry.