TUBERCULOSIS: TB is cause of 25% deaths in AIDS patients

JOHANNESBURG, 19 May 2010 (PLUSNEWS) - Diagnosing HIV early and starting antiretroviral (ARV) treatment could be the most important weapons in the battle against HIV-associated tuberculosis, but this would need a huge injection of resources in southern Africa, where the dual epidemics of TB and HIV claim the most lives. The authors of a paper, part of a series on TB in the British medical journal, The Lancet, note that the disease accounted for more than a quarter of the two million deaths attributed to AIDS-related diseases in 2008, and is the number one cause of illness and death in people living with HIV in Africa, yet efforts to contain TB-HIV co-infection have been "timid, slow and uncoordinated". A move towards earlier HIV testing and treatment is already underway. Many countries have adopted the 2009 World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, which raised the threshold for starting ARV treatment from a CD4 count of less than 200, to 350. Earlier ARV treatment as a tool to prevent TB has received less attention, but the reality is that "Many people with HIV infection start ART [antiretroviral therapy] too late, especially in Africa, and have already developed TB by the time that they present to health services for care," the authors said.