HIV & AIDS treatment in practice (HATIP) is a regular email newsletter for healthcare workers and community-based organisations on HIV treatment in resource-limited settings.

After enduring six months of pain that grew so intense she could no longer work, Perline Razanadravao finally decided to go with her equally sick baby to see a doctor.

Every year, millions of patients in resource-limited countries receive life-saving medicines that are purchased by or through international procurement agencies such as UNICEF, UNFPA, UNITAID and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The WHO Prequalification of Medicines Programme ensures that selected medicines supplied by these agencies meet international standards of quality, safety and efficacy.

Health officials in Florida hastened their closure of the nation's only dedicated tuberculosis hospital on cost-cutting grounds as one of the worst outbreaks of the deadly disease in 20 years was taking a grip on the state, it has been revealed.

The growing evidence regarding the burden and detrimental effects of TB among women and children, especially among those living with HIV, highlights the need for improving TB/HIV activities in PMTCT and maternal, newborn, and child health settings.

Public health professionals have warned about drug-resistant tuberculosis for years. Now comes news out of India and China to feed the concern.

One-third of the world’s human population is infected with a dormant tuberculosis bacteria, primarily people living in developing countries. The bacteria presents a lifelong TB risk. Recent research out of the University of Copenhagen demonstrates that the risk of tuberculosis breaking out is four times as likely if a person also suffers from diabetes. Meanwhile, as a diabetic, a person is five times as likely to die during tuberculosis treatment. The growing number of diabetics in Asia and Africa increases the likelihood that more people will succumb to and die from tuberculosis in the future.

Introduction

I am a doctor working in the state sector, and this is my response to the article entitled ‘Baragwanath’s Shame: A good man dies’.

A new global study mapping human-animal diseases like tuberculosis (TB) and Rift Valley fever finds that an "unlucky" 13 zoonoses are responsible for 2.4 billion cases of human illness and 2.2 million deaths per year. The vast majority occur in low- and middle-income countries.