HIV and TB are interacting epidemic diseases. In 2009,
there were an estimated 1.1 million HIV-infected patients with
TB globally.10 Thailand, the country with the highest HIV
prevalence in southeast Asia, has the 22nd highest TB burden
in the world. According to recent estimates by the World Health
Organization, 1.3% of Thai adults are HIV-infected and the TB
prevalence is 189 per 100,000 population.11,12 The HIV epidemic
has fuelled the TB burden in the last two decades. Concurrently,
16% of newly-diagnosed TB cases in Thailand were HIVinfected,12–14
whilst TB mortality in the HIV-positive population
was estimated as six per 100,000 per year in 2007.13