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Credit: NY State Dept. of Health

Tuberculosis and HIV

TB and HIV/AIDS represent a deadly combination. HIV is the major risk factor causing the conversion of latent TB to active transmissible TB, accelerating the spread of TB.

TB is the leading cause of death in people with HIV.
One in three HIV-positive people in the world are also infected with TB.
One in three people with HIV/AIDS will die from TB.
HIV-positive people infected with latent TB are 30 times more likely to develop active TB.

There are about 40.6 million people living with HIV/AIDS. The National Intelligence Council (“NIC”) projects this number will grow significantly by the end of the decade. The increase will be driven by five countries representing over 40% of the world’s population: India, Nigeria, China, Ethiopia, and Russia. By 2010, the NIC projects that there will be between 52 to 73 million cases of HIV/AIDS in these five countries and between 82 and 108 million cases inclusive of Central and Southern Africa.

graph 1

(Source: National Intelligence Council)

Faster and more reliable diagnostic tools are desperately needed if we are to reduce the burden of tuberculosis, particularly in areas of high HIV prevalence.