The Union plays key role in TB2016 Conference, championing integrated TB-HIV approach

This new event, on 16-17 July, in Durban, preceding the July 18-22 AIDS2016 conference, is symbolic of a vital integrated approach to HIV and TB. These dual epidemics must be fought together, in order to end both.

The Union is playing a key role in TB2016, an inaugural two day conference organised by The International AIDS Society, taking place 16-17 July, in Durban, South Africa. Preceding the July 18-22 AIDS2016 conference, it represents a vital integrated international approach to HIV and tuberculosis (TB), two linked epidemics that must be fought together, in order to make significant progress in ending both.

The facts are alarming. People living with HIV are 26 times more likely to develop TB than those without HIV infection and TB is the predominant cause of death for those living with HIV, responsible in 2015 for one in three of these deaths. In 2014, 25 per cent of TB deaths were HIV related.

TB2016 will bring together global health professionals and specialists under the banner of 'Science + Solidarity', to share evidence, knowledge and understanding of this dual threat and how to counter it.

Drawing on its international successes, including its contribution to the shortened nine month treatment regimen now recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and its work at the grassroots level, such as a faith leaders initiative to challenge the stigma of HIV and TB at a community level, The Union will share best practice with the TB and HIV communities. These conversations and connections that will be developed during TB2016 will be continued and strengthened at the 47th Union World Conference on Lung Health in Liverpool in October.

Since its founding in 1920, The Union has been at the forefront of TB research, care and control and is now effectively addressing the threats posed by TB and HIV globally, even as those threats evolve and demand renewed efforts at a national and international level, as with the emergence of multi-drug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB). 

The Union is delivering a programme of events at both TB2016 and AIDS 2016 relating to its work on ending these epidemics. 

You can download the full schedule of Union events as a PDF (1.5MB)

Some highlights include: