27 July 2012 - Washington DC - Today at the closing of a special session at AIDS 2012, the International AIDS conference, award-winning actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Whoopi Goldberg made an impassioned call for urgent action on TB/HIV among children and women. "We are going to have to come to terms with this and join in making this partnership between TB and HIV dissolve. This is something we have to be dealing with now and not later," she said.

India is a very high burden TB country, accounting for 21% of the global incidence. It is estimated that TB kills 300,000 Indians annually: one death every 2 minutes. The situation is no better when it comes to multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB). India, with about 100,000 of its TB patients having drug-resistant strains, represents over 20% of the world’s MDR-TB burden. Globally 440,000 MDR-TB cases emerge and 150,000 people die of MDR-TB every year. Citizen News Service (CNS) gathered perspectives and opinions on MDR-TB and HIV from a range of experts and advocates attending the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington DC.

It is possible to drastically reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with pediatric tuberculosis if case detection is improved and preventive therapy and curative treatment are made more accessible globally.

Progress towards reducing HIV-associated TB deaths can be achieved through attention to simple and deliverable actions on the ground.

Diabetes and TB represent a critical intersection between communicable and non-communicable diseases.

People who started antiretroviral therapy (ART) immediately in the randomized HPTN 052 trial had a significantly slower time to an AIDS disease and to tuberculosis than did people who delayed treatment [1]. The group that started ART immediately--at a CD4 count above 350--also had a lower rate of all new diseases assessed in this 2-year analysis.

The integrase inhibitor raltegravir (Isentress) may be a good substitute for efavirenz (Sustiva) in HIV patients starting treatment for HIV and tuberculosis (TB) at the same time, a researcher said here.

Twelve months of isoniazid (INH) preventive therapy (IPT) significantly reduced the incidence of all TB diagnoses among HIV-positive people who were taking concurrent antiretroviral therapy (ART) according to results of a large randomised study presented as a late breaker study on Thursday evening at the Nineteenth International AIDS Conference in Washington DC.

The lateral-flow urine LAM test for tuberculosis – a simple inexpensive strip test for tuberculosis – is a feasible point-of-care test in hospitalised South African adults living with HIV and – if patients are then quickly put on effective treatment – would be a very cost-effective diagnostic strategy in such patients, according to a South African study presented on Wednesday afternoon at the 19^th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington DC.

HIV infection did not have an impact on the time it took for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) adult to reach culture conversion, according to a study from Botswana presented at the 19^th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington DC. However, high rates of drug toxicity were found overall and were more likely to be associated with HIV co-infection.