An old scourge returns

By Wen Chihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-08-12 10:03

The fight against the tuberculosis (TB) epidemic will play a critical role in the battle against HIV/AIDS, health officials and experts say.

TB, an age-old contagious disease, is now the leading cause of death among people infected with HIV in Africa and Asia, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"Once a person who is HIV positive is infected with TB, he will die within three weeks without treatment," says Dr Jerald C. Sadoff at the 5th IAS (International AIDS Association) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention in Cape Town, South Africa.

Sadoff, president and CEO of the Aeras Global TB Vaccine Foundation, which is based in Rockville, Maryland, United States, notes that "in Africa, TB is one of the most common AIDS-defining illnesses. And 80 percent of HIV-infected people die of TB."

Sadoff points out that, although curable, active TB can lead to an increase in the HIV viral load, which usually drops down again once the TB is properly treated.

Figures released in 2009 by WHO suggest that globally, there are 13.7 million TB patients - with 1.77 million deaths and 9.27 million new cases a year.

China has about 4.5 million active TB patients, which ranks second in the world. Every year 130,000 people die of the disease and 1.5 million new cases emerge, which accounts for about 15 percent of the global incidence of tuberculosis.

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