Worldwide, tuberculosis is a leading cause of death among people with HIV

Worldwide, TB is one of the leading causes of death among people with HIV.

The mechanism is direct. Most people infected with TB bacteria never become
ill, because their immune system keeps the infection contained. **HIV weakens
the immune system**, which makes it harder for the body to fight TB germs — so
**people with HIV are more likely than people without it to develop active TB
disease.**

Why testing matters even when you feel well

**When a person's immune system is weak, inactive TB can quickly progress to
active TB disease.**

The word is quickly. In someone with an intact immune system, latent TB may
sit dormant for decades and never do anything. In someone with HIV, the
containment that produced that dormancy is failing.

So the question "am I infected with TB bacteria" changes from an academic one
to an urgent one — and it cannot be answered by how you feel, because inactive
TB has no symptoms at all.

**If you have HIV, talk to your health care provider about getting tested for
TB.**

And it is treatable

TB can be treated with medication — both the active disease and, crucially
here, the inactive infection. Treating latent TB in someone with HIV prevents
the progression this whole page is about, and that is the point of finding it.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.