Tuberculoses: New faces of an old disease
The new campaign publication on tuberculosis of the Access to Essential Medicines Campaign of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) focuses on HIV/TB co-infection. The challenges of treating TB have multiplied with the rise of drug-resistant strains and the spread of the disease through populations already infected with HIV/AIDS.
“People living with HIV/AIDS, whose immune systems are suppressed, are particularly susceptible to TB. Not only are they much more likely to develop active TB, but the disease also progresses much more rapidly in HIV positive patients. TB causes up to half of all deaths of people with HIV. This vulnerability caused by weakened immune systems explains why TB has been ripping through the populations in sub-Saharan Africa where there is a high prevalence of HIV.”
“Given the high risks of co-infection in places where large numbers of people with HIV live, it has become increasingly clear that treatment for the two diseases should be integrated. Treatment integration would allow patients to benefit from early diagnosis of either disease and ensure effective monitoring of the combined treatments.”
MSF has worked on setting up ‘one stop shops’, in effect clinics where people are treated for both diseases in one place.
However, despite the clear statement from WHO and others of the importance of implementing an integrated approach, in most places TB and HIV programmes continue to operate in isolation from each other. (May 2009)
Feedback