Publications

This operational research was conducted with the support from the Global Fund. The original design was developed by the staff of the Centre for Health Policies and Studies. UNAIDS RCA ECA has provided technical assistance to finalise the study protocol, the data collection and to oversee parts of data collection.

The operational research had the goal to estimate HIV prevalence among newly registered TB cases in 2007 in the Republic of Moldova. Besides, it evaluated knowledge and attitudes towards HIV/AIDS and HIV VCT of TB patients.  The study obectives were to: (1) To estimate HIV prevalence among TB new detected cases in Moldova; (2) to estimate HIV knowledge among TB patients in Moldova; (3) to explore TB patients attitudes towards HIV/AIDS; (4) To measure HIV VCT coverage of TB patients. A prospective cohort study was conducted. The study had two components: serological and quantitative components. The serological component allowed estimating HIV prevalence among new TB cases, the knowledge and behavioral component one allowed assessing key knowledge on HIV/AIDS and reveal attitudes towards HIV/AIDS of the target group. sample size of the Sample size was 436 respondents. Results showed that if routine testing is offered to all TB patients, the HIV prevalence in TB patients is much higher than previously reported. An alarming 12.2% HIV prevalence among TB patients was reported in Balti city. The integrated knowledge indicator showed a lower level of knowledge in TB patients (18.5%) compared to 28.3% in the general population. A high level of misconceptions about HIV transmission and high level of stigma towards PLWH among TB patients.