Micronutrient supplements and mortality of HIV-infected adults with pulmonary TB: a controlled clinical trial

Setting: Zomba and Blantyre, Malawi, Africa.

Objectives: To determine whether daily micronutrient supplementation reduces the mortality of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infected adults with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB).

Design: A randomised, controlled clinical trial of micronutrient supplementation for HIV-positive and HIV-negative adults with pulmonary TB. Participants were enrolled at the commencement of chemotherapy for sputum smear-positive pulmonary TB and followed up for 24 months.

Results: A total of 829 HIV-positive and 573 HIV-negative adults were enrolled. During follow-up, 328 HIV-positive and 17 HIV-negative participants died. The proportion of HIV-positive participants who died in the micronutrient and placebo groups was 38.7% and 40.4%, respectively (P = 0.49). Micronutrient supplementation did not reduce mortality (hazard ratio [HR] 0.93, 95%CI 0.75-1.15) among HIV-positive adults.

Conclusions: Micronutrient supplementation at the doses used in this study does not reduce mortality in HIV-positive adults with pulmonary TB in Malawi.