UN Says Collaboration Shields AIDS Patients from TB

The World Health Organization has said that some 910,000 lives have been saved so far under a six-year-old policy of cooperation between AIDS and tuberculosis health services. The stepped-up collaboration has brought about better protection of AIDS patients against TB, a leading killer of people living with HIV, the Geneva-based UN agency said in a statement.

The number of HIV-positive patients tested for TB grew nearly 12-fold between 2005 and 2010, from 200,000 to more than 2.3 million.

In the other direction, the number of TB patients screened for HIV grew five-fold, from 470,000 to 2.2 million over the same period.

Since HIV weakens the immune system, HIV-positive people are more likely to be infected with TB, and vice versa.

"We must address TB as we manage HIV," said Gottfried Hirnschall, who heads WHO's HIV/AIDS department.

The three-pronged approach involves routine HIV screening for TB patients, those with TB symptoms and their partners or family members; making available co-trimoxazole, a drug that prevents lung infections; and beginning retroviral treatment for both HIV and TB patients as soon as possible.

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The policy of joint prevention, diagnosis and treatment of TB and HIV will be presented Monday at a major scientific conference on AIDS, the annual Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, in the northwestern US city of Seattle.

Source-AFP