- ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia
-- The spread of HIV/AIDS is fueling a massive tuberculosis crisis that
could see one billion people infected in the next 20 years, the U.N. warned
Monday.
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- A staggering 35 million people could also die of TB in
that time if its growth continues unchecked, the World Health Organization
said at the start of a two-day conference in the Ethiopian capital, Addis
Ababa.
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- The conference is seeking to promote joint treatment
of the two leading killer diseases in the world. AIDS kills 8,000 people
worldwide a day while another 5,000 die from TB.
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- TB is the most common infection among - and the leading
killer of - people living with HIV/AIDS.
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- TB infects an estimated 8.7 million people a year and
kills 2 million a year. It is spread by airborne bacteria that settle into
the lungs and cause long-term infection. Many people who are infected do
not become ill themselves but can spread it.
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- Of the estimated 25 million Africans now living with
HIV, about eight million also harbor the bacillus that causes TB.
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- Each year, 5-10 percent of these eight million co-infected
people develop active TB and up to four million will develop the disease
at some point in their lives, the WHO said.
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- The "deadly interaction" of TB and HIV threatens
to evolve into a global public health crisis and called for urgent action
to stop the co-epidemic, said Mario Raviglione, head of the WHO fight against
TB. The danger is compounded by the appearance of drug-resistant TB strains.
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- Earlier Monday, a senior US health official called on
Ethiopia's political leaders to go for public tests for HIV in a bid to
help end the stigma affecting those living with the virus.
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- Julie Gerberding, director of the US Center for Disease
Control, was speaking during a three-day visit highlighting projects funded
under U.S. President George W. Bush's US$15 billion initiative to combat
HIV/AIDS.
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- "Having a visible political leader getting an HIV
test helps, there is no question about it," Gerberding said. "I
would encourage all leaders to have an HIV test as I have done."
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