[Antitubercular drug treatment failure and HIV infection in Abidjan (Ivory Coast)].

A retrospective study from 1989 to 1993 was carried out on eighty patients out of 106 cases of tuberculosis treatment failure; representing 2.2% of persons with active pulmonary tuberculosis followed at the tuberculosis screening center of Abidjan. The rate of HIV seropositivity was 43.7%. At the beginning of the therapy, 80% of HIV-positive and 89% of HIV-negative had diffuse pulmonary lesions (no significant difference: P > 0.05. At the end of second month therapy, 49% of co-infected and 51% of HIV-negative patients showed bacteriological negative sputum. The treatment administered after reporting failure, led to 63% of recovery among the HIV-positive (22/35) and 62% among the HIV-negative (28/45). On the other hand, the rate of patients out of touch was high in both populations; respectively 29% of HIV infected and 31% of HIV-negative spreading the risk of contamination of neighbourhood by probably resistant bacilli.