AIDS: Curbing AIDS epidemic means treating TB
Study shows life-saving potential of dual treatment.
A huge and growing tuberculosis (TB) epidemic threatens to crush the world's efforts to fight AIDS, health officials, scientists and activists warned at the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Canada, this Wednesday.
Read the story here.
Comments
I have been working with TB & to my knowledge it is not given the same importance as HIV. Though researchers know that TB is the opportunistic infection among HIV patients, not much consideration is given to deal with.
It definitely needs an upfront & to be diagnosed at the earliest, to say, it must be screened when the HIV patient comes to VCTC. Since TB is curable, early intervention is necessary & possible. But the government agencies & the central TB division of each country along with WHO should encourage & accept the fact even if the factsheets seems to be deviant from the factsheets of WHO. It is necessary to involve the TB experts who are willing to put their effort to control this silent killer disease.
To control TB & to invest more money in HIV TB research should be given the priority. Even in the global forum 9, it was pointed out that TB is getting less prioritised & much less percentage of money is spent for TB.
If we want to bring down the incidence rate of HIV infection, the first step is to start the DOTS program once the HIV patient is screened & diagnosed it for TB.
Anyway, it was a good thought brought up in this conference.Good luck.
Posted by: Shanthi Sankaralingam | August 17, 2006 08:47 PM