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Stronger effort urged among HIV and TB workers

    JOHANNESBURG

    Efforts against HIV/AIDS are "a losing battle" unless health care workers, aid agencies and governments cooperate in eliminating tuberculosis (TB), an official of the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

    The director of the WHO "Stop TB" programme, Dr Mario Raviglione, warned that if an HIV-positive individual received antiretroviral drugs to treat HIV, but was not treated for TB, the person would likely die within months.

    Raviglione was quoted by the Washington Times as saying: "In the nations with the highest rates of HIV, between 60 and 80 percent of all those infected with TB are also HIV-positive. Between 30 and 40 percent of all HIV-positive patients will get TB. We badly need interaction between these two communities."

    WHO research shows that TB - usually curable with a US $10 regimen of antibiotics - is the leading killer of HIV-positive people worldwide.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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