22 July 2010 – The United Nations and the Stop TB Partnership have agreed to step up joint efforts to halve by 2015 the number of people living with HIV who die from tuberculosis, which accounts for a quarter of all deaths among those living with the virus.
The memorandum of understanding signed today in Vienna between the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Stop TB Partnership – a leading public-private global health initiative – also aims to provide life-saving antiretroviral treatment for all TB patients living with HIV.
“We already have the tools to keep people living with HIV from dying of TB,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé.
“We must join our TB partners to promote an evidence and human rights-based approach to tackling TB and HIV. Together we can virtually eliminate TB-related AIDS deaths.”
The two organizations will press government health programmes to reach everyone in need of care for TB and HIV by integrating the services that provide diagnosis and treatment for both conditions.
They will also push for more resources to achieve this goal, and to galvanize civil society organizations, communities affected by TB and HIV and the private sector to form strong partnerships aimed at jointly addressing TB and HIV.
Stressing the needs of marginalized groups, they also called on world leaders to promote full access to HIV and TB services for women and girls, orphans, displaced persons, migrants, prisoners, men who have sex with men, people who use drugs and other vulnerable groups.
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=35390&Cr=aids&Cr1=
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