WHO anti-HIV/TB efforts ineffective - MSF

International medical NGO, Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) says the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been ineffective against co-infection by tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS.

MSF officials charged that the UN health agency's Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) for TB had shown limited success in dealing with TB/HIV co-infection and the emergence of multidrug-resistant TB.

"Only a tiny minority of patients with multidrug-resistant TB have access to the drugs, which are terribly expensive, toxic and have shown limited success. Lack of adapted tests for TB/HIV co-infected patients means that many patients are not even diagnosed," MSF's TB advisor, Dr Brigitte Vasset, pointed out in a statement.

MSF estimated that one-third of the world's 40 million HIV-positive people were also co-infected with TB, while some two million people had a multidrug-resistant form of the disease.