South African Press Association - November 10, 2007

Dr Alasdair Reid, the HIV/TB adviser to the international body, was speaking at a media briefing held alongside a major conference on lung health in the city. He said all people with TB should be offered an HIV test and the chance to obtain life-saving antiretrovirals. All people living with HIV should be screened for TB regularly and given access to Isoniazid, a basic antibiotic used to prevent TB.

"These lifesaving activities can be achieved with greater cooperation between TB and HIV programmes," he said. "They are cheap, simple and readily available in most countries. However a lack of meaningful partnerships between TB and HIV programmes in many countries means that lives continue to be lost unnecessarily." TB remains the commonest cause of illness and death among people living with HIV, despite the fact that it is both treatable and preventable.

UNAids is committed to improving TB control, and is planning a special session on the disease at the next meeting of its governing body in April next year. Early results from global monitoring of TB-HIV activities have shown some impressive progress from previous years. Since 2005, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of people living with HIV screened for TB, and a six-fold increase in the number of TB patients who are tested for HIV.

"But these levels still fall far short of the milestones that are laid down in the Global Plan to Stop TB," Reid said. Only 25 000 people living with HIV were treated with Isoniazid in 2006, representing a tiny fraction of the 14-million people estimated to have both HIV and active TB. UNAids's TB-HIV working group has called on global and national policymakers to redouble their efforts to ensure universal access to the drug.

Although there is a desperate need for greater investment in research in new tools to prevent, diagnose and treat TB in people living with HIV, investment in research has actually declined since last year.

"There's a lot more that we can actually do with the existing tools that we have available, to reduce the impact on the lives of people living with HIV. "Unless we act now to prevent detect and treat TB early in people living with HIV, it will be very, very difficult to achieve the Millennium Development Goal targets for HIV, and thousands of people with HIV will continue to die of preventable, treatable tuberculosis." Reid said in many African countries, more than 80% of TB sufferers are also HIV-positive, and as many as one in five of them will die. More than half of all Aids deaths are caused by TB.

071110
SA071105

Always watch for outdated information. This article first appeared in 2007. This material is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between you and your doctor.

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2007. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .