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A WORLD FREE OF TB
Tuberculosis is an airborne infectious disease that is preventable and curable. People ill with TB bacteria in their lungs can infect others when they cough. An estimated 1.5 million people died from TB in 2006. In addition, another 200,000 people with HIV died from HIV-associated TB. If TB disease is detected early and fully treated, people with the disease quickly become non-infectious and eventually cured. Multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB), HIV-associated TB, and weak health systems are major challenges.
WHO is working to dramatically reduce the burden of TB, and halve TB deaths and prevalence by 2015, through its Stop TB Strategy and supporting the Global Plan to Stop TB.
Targeted action on HIV and tuberculosis
4 August 2008 -- International AIDS Conference, Mexico City -- Health and criminal justice authorities need to provide targeted services to drug users, especially those who inject drugs, to prevent and treat tuberculosis (TB) and HIV. TB is a major cause of death for people living with HIV, but drug users who are HIV positive face stigma, discrimination and barriers to accessing life-saving treatments.
Note for the media and background documents
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