The International AIDS Society (IAS) highlighted the devastating impact of tuberculosis (TB) and TB-HIV by convening an inaugural TB pre-conference (TB2016) just prior to the International AIDS Conference, AIDS2016. Recognising the link between TB and HIV, TB2016 emphasised the desperate need to ensure the two communities work collaboratively in the fight against TB and HIV.
Active TB is 20-30 times more likely to develop in a person living with HIV, and TB is the leading cause of death in this group. Worldwide, 30% of people with HIV dies of TB and in South Africa - where the conference was held – some 70% of TB patients are HIV positive.
The Union and the IAS issued a joint statement in the lead up to TB2016 recognising the urgent need for collaboration between the TB and HIV communities and calling for better integration of services and efforts.
José Luis Castro, Executive Director of The Union, welcomed delegates to the opening plenary of TB2016 by issuing a powerful plea for change. He called on the TB and HIV communities to stop seeing themselves as working for one disease or the other but as a united front working together to help people affected by this twin epidemic.
He also challenged those working in TB to change the way they speak about the disease.
“When people who do not know anything about TB learn that TB is airborne, that TB kills millions of people, that drug-resistance is spreading, watch their reaction. They don’t think TB is boring. They say: ‘How did I not know about this before?’”
Similar rhetoric was echoed throughout the two-day pre-conference, and carried over to influence AIDS2016 – one of the first times that TB has featured so prominently on the agenda at an AIDS Conference.
Union delegations from Zimbabwe, India and Myanmar participated in presentations, plenaries and abstract discussions on topics ranging from the shortened nine-month treatment regimen for multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB), faith-based initiatives to deliver TB information through religious leaders, reaching the 90-90-90 targets for TB and others.
The conversations initiated at TB2016 and AIDS2016 will continue at the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool in October.
Read the transcript of José Luis Castro’s opening plenary speech here.
The Union
subtitle: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease