TY - JOUR T1 - Tuberculosis patients with unknown HIV status in the Netherlands: analysing underreporting and lack of testing JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.01257-2017 VL - 50 IS - 5 SP - 1701257 AU - Maike Arnoldussen AU - Henrieke Schimmel AU - Eline Op de Coul AU - Susan van den Hof AU - Gerard de Vries Y1 - 2017/11/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/50/5/1701257.abstract N2 - The epidemics of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV are closely linked, as HIV infection is the main risk factor for progression from latent TB infection to active TB disease [1]. Globally, 11% of the 10.4 million new TB cases in 2015 were HIV-infected, and 22% of the 1.8 million TB deaths were among HIV-infected patients [2]. Despite all efforts made by collaborative TB/HIV programmes, less than half of all TB patients worldwide are estimated to be tested for HIV infection [2, 3]. Only 19 of the 31 countries, representing a third of all TB patients in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA), report HIV status, with 67.6% of patients in these countries having a known HIV status [4]. Better information on the burden of TB/HIV co-infections will aid the planning and evaluation of TB/HIV prevention and control activities in various countries [5–8].Few HIV-co-infected TB patients are missed despite suboptimal testing and reporting in the Netherlands http://ow.ly/VT9230fPJpiThe authors would like to thank the public health nurses and physicians of the TB departments of the Municipal Public Health Services who participated in this study. ER -