TAC/TAG first Africa regional
TB/HIV ADVOCACY WORKSHOP
held in Cape Town on 19-21 June 2006

Workshop presentations are in PDF and Powerpoint formats, and can be viewed with free downloadable browser plugins.
• Download free Adobe Acrobat Reader
• Download free Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer
 

Over 70 activists from 22 African countries met in Cape Town for a workshop on HIV and tuberculosis (TB) advocacy from 19 to 21 June 2006.

HIV and TB Epidemics
Many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have large HIV epidemics. TB though treatable is a leading causes of deaths in people with HIV, more so than any other opportunistic infection. Africa has many of the high TB burden countries in the world. In countries with TB epidemics, people with HIV have a 10% chance of developing TB each year, compared to 10% in a life time for people who do not have HIV. Consequently most countries with large HIV epidemics also have large TB epidemics.

There are several challenges to the successful management of TB epidemics in developing countries. Key among these is that TB is difficult to diagnose, especially in people with advanced HIV-disease. Nearly two thirds of people with HIV who have TB have extra pulmonary or smear negative TB which will be missed by the most commonly used diagnostic tool. The more accurate TB diagnostics using culture technology take up to two months to deliver results, during which time many people with TB and HIV will die without being diagnosed. The current treatment is cumbersome, requires four drugs for two months and two for six months at a minimum. The additional challenge is that the most powerful TB drug cannot be used with many HIV medications. These challenges in TB treatment lead to lack of adherence which can lead to multi-drug resistant TB. The prices of medicines for multi-drug resistant TB, which is a growing problem and ever present threat, are more than 100 times more expensive than first line TB drugs.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3
TB/HIV Project Index TAG index