The Infectious Diseases Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy responded to newly released figures on HIV-tuberculosis co-infection with a call to triple the U.S. contribution to the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and significantly increase domestic funding for TB control.

On World TB Day, March 24, The World Health Organization (WHO) released its latest estimate of HIV-TB coinfection indicating there were at least 1.37 million cases of HIV-TB co-infection worldwide in 2007—twice as many as WHO’s previous estimates.

In a press release, the Infectious Diseases Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy noted that these figures come as the Global Fund faces a $5 billion shortfall and may be unable to fund anti-TB programs in nearly 60 countries. Global health advocates are concerned that the Obama administration will flatline vital HIV/AIDS and TB programs as the global recession deepens.

The Center held a teleconference with reporters, featuring Richard Chaisson, MD, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Tuberculosis Research, and Carol Dukes Hamilton, MD, a professor of medicine at Duke University .

Dr. Hamilton noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s budget for TB research has suffered in recent years, even as the global threat of TB grows. Dr. Chaisson talked about the need for new infection control measures and increased funding so that vital anti-TB programs, including those run by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, can do a better job screening people with HIV for TB.

More on HIV/TB from the Center’s New Blog

Get the latest HIV/AIDS and TB news at sciencespeaks.wordpress.com, a new blog launched by the Infectious Diseases Center for Global Health Policy and Advocacy. We want this to be a resource for you to get up-to-date information on what’s happening in the field and what’s happening in Washington, DC.

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