Introduction             Understanding the tuberculosis-HIV-selenium-deficiency positive feed-back loop is critical to fully understanding both tuberculosis and HIV disease.             HIV, tuberculosis, co-infection with hepatitis and other opportunistic infections; plus selenium nutritional deficiency, form a multi-focal positive feedback loop that increases inflammatory and oxidative damage as it concurrently depletes the body’s selenium supply. This results in a decline in both immune competence and the anti-oxidant defenses selenium supports. In hi...