Un backed initiative aims to half HIV

 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reported that there has been a 13% reduction in tuberculosis (TB)-associated HIV deaths in the last two years. The reduction is due to a sharp increase in the numbers of people with HIV and TB co-infection accessing antiretroviral therapy (ART)––a 45% increase between 2009 and 2011.



Yet TB remains the leading cause of death among people living with HIV.



UNAIDS and the Stop TB Partnership have signed a new agreement to accelerate action to achieve the 2015 goal of reducing deaths from TB among people living with HIV.



The agreement – between the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Stop TB Partnership – will seek to achieve the 2015 goal of reducing deaths from TB among HIV patients by 50 per cent, or the equivalent of 600,000 lives.



At the 2011 UN High-Level Meeting on AIDS, Member States agreed on the ambitious objective of halving TB/HIV deaths by 2015, which also happens to be the target year for the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agenda.



As a result, preventative treatments would focus on the 10 countries which currently bear three-quarters of all TB/HIV fatalities: Ethiopia, India, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.



However, despite increased access to antiretroviral therapy for patients and a consequent 13 per cent reduction in the numbers of TB-associated HIV deaths over the past two years, the pulmonary disease continues to remain the leading cause of death among HIV patients.



People living with HIV are 20 to 30 times more likely to develop active TB than people without HIV infections, with pregnant women and children particularly at risk. In 2011 alone, 25 per cent of all AIDS-related deaths were caused by HIV-associated TB disease.

Preventing HIV/TB deaths • In countries where HIV and TB are prevalent, testing for both should be provided to everyone. • People living with HIV are far less likely to become ill with and die of TB if they begin antiretroviral therapy (ART) before their immune systems begin serious decline. All people who are eligible for ART should receive it as early as possible. • In addition to earlier ART, people living with HIV should be protected against becoming ill with TB through a daily dose of the drug isoniazid. • All people who test positive for HIV and are also found to have TB disease should start TB treatment immediately. After two weeks on TB treatment, they should begin ART, regardless of the status of their immune system.