CD4 and tuberculosis: Table 2 presents baseline clinical and demographic characteristics of patients with/without Mtb culture samples and shows that these two groups are comparable. The majority of patients in both groups were young males with a history of injected-drug use (IDU), imprisonment, and/or excessive alcohol consumption. Even though the majority of patients were diagnosed with HIV infection several years before TB diagnosis, only a small proportion were on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at time of TB diagnosis, and the majority had low CD4 cell counts (Table 2).