Action - Advocacy to Control TB Internationally

Health experts and activists sign letter asking for presidential TB initiative as global awareness effort launches on www.xdrtb.org.

A mere 1% of people living with HIV/AIDS are reported to have been screened for TB, according to the most recent global data available from the World Health Organization.  Health experts and activists at the International AIDS Conference are calling upon HIV/AIDS programs and international donors to ensure universal TB screening of every person who has tested positive for HIV.

President George Bush today will sign into law an historic measure to fight global disease. The Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 authorizes the $48 billion over five years to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria.

On Monday 28 July, RESULTS UK held a panel-led seminar on the co-epidemic of tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS at the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. The Lambeth Conference takes place once every ten years and provides a forum for debate on key issues affecting the Anglican Communion.

Last evening the Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve an historic global health bill, the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008. The $48 billion, five-year measure to fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria was approved by a vote of 80-16.

In the first major meeting of its kind, world leaders and global health activists came together on June 9 at the UN headquarters in New York to spur action on the increasingly dangerous connection between the global tuberculosis and the HIV/AIDS pandemics.

For several years RESULTS UK has been pressing for DFID to address the key issue of TB-HIV co-infection, which claims five million lives a year. We therefore welcome the recognition of this issue in the government’s new AIDS strategy, launched this week.

Kenyan Lucy Chesire survived TB/HIV co-infection to become a key figure in the fight against the two diseases. Her campaigning has lead to TB being declared an emergency in Africa. In a rare opportunity, Lucy Chesire is available for interviews in the UK from 2-4 June, before travelling to New York to participate in the first HIV-TB Global Leaders' Forum at the United Nations on 9 June 2008

For the second straight year Canada’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) as a percentage of the country's overall economy has slipped, according to a report released today by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

India is home to nearly one fifth of the global burden of multidrug-resistant TB cases. Urgent attention is needed to ensure the effectiveness of India's national TB control program.