People living with HIV are dying from TB - It’s time to take action
A report from the International AIDS Conference
By Katy Kydd Wright, RESULTS Canada
At the AIDS conference this week in Mexico City, I am one of the thousands of people who have gathered to chart the next steps in fighting this pandemic.
The word "raucous" accurately describes the crowds of committed people circulating through the Global Village here. Groups from around the world are hosting creative exchanges on many facets of the AIDS crisis - with one notable exception.
The TB and HIV/AIDS communities must come together to push for resources and integrated services for their patients, ensuring access to TB and HIV/AIDS treatments for all.
Alarmingly, one of the biggest killers of people living with HIV is barely spoken of here - tuberculosis. TB is the leading infectious killer of HIV-positive people in the developing world and is responsible for one out of every two HIV/AIDS deaths in Africa.
TB and HIV work together in the body in a deadly synergy. HIV weakens the immune system and TB kills the patient. People living with HIV who have latent TB are 50 times more likely to develop active TB than those who are HIV-negative. Untreated, TB can kill a person with HIV in weeks.
These terrible statistics are made even more terrible when you know that most of these deaths could be avoided with TB treatment that costs as little as $20 per person. People on anti-retroviral treatments for HIV/AIDS are dying because they are not being tested, diagnosed or treated with $20 TB drugs.
Despite the deadly connection between HIV and TB, on the first day of the AIDS conference, only about 50 people out of thousands showed up to a session on HIV/TB co-infection hosted by the World Health Organization. This lack of focus must change. Providing HIV positive people with routine TB screening is the most effective means of reducing deaths and ensuring access to treatment.
As Nelson Mandela has said at another AIDS Conference in Bangkok in 2004, "We cannot win the battle against AIDS if we do not also fight TB". In 2006 only 1 in a 100 people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide were screened for TB.
The TB and HIV/AIDS communities must come together to push for resources and integrated services for their patients, ensuring access to TB and HIV/AIDS treatments for all.
Governments can also show bold leadership. Canada's Health Minister Tony Clement is attending this year's AIDS conference. When questioned, he expressed general support and understanding of the need for global TB control.
The message I hope he brings home is that Canada can be an example to the world by scaling up our commitment and resources for TB control. We can be a global leader in addressing TB/HIV co-infection and deaths. Achieving universal access to quality TB-HIV services by 2015 would reduce TB deaths in people living with HIV/AIDS by 80%. It is a target we can meet and a fight that Canada can lead.
Katy Kydd Wright is the ACTION Project Manager for RESULTS Canada, an ACTION partner and grassroots advocacy organization that works to end the worst aspects of poverty and hunger.