Tuberculosis and HIV Infection

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Abstract
In their excellent article on tuberculosis in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection (June 6 issue), Barnes et al.1 mention but do not emphasize a point that adds greatly to the urgency of controlling the spread of tuberculosis to HIV-infected persons: the manner in which HIV infection accelerates the development of tuberculosis when tuberculin-negative HIV-infected persons are infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. 2 That HIV infection can cause a dormant tuberculosis infection to become active is widely known,3 but that it can accelerate the course of a new infection is not.