Accelerating the implementation of collaborative TB/HIV activities in the WHO European Region
The first European TB/HIV regional meeting was held in Vienna, Austria from 16-17 July prior to the XVIII International AIDS conference. The meeting was organized by the World Health Organization in collaboration with the TB/HIV Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership. A total of 186 people from 37 countries participated to the meeting with representation from all of the 18 high TB burden countries from the Region. Participants discussed how to strengthen collaboration and coordination between programmes, how to address drug-resistant TB, and how to provide integrated and holistic care to most at risk populations such as drug users and prisoners. Participants also shared experiences and best practices to inform recommendations to accelerate the implementation of nationwide scale-up of collaborative activities. The meeting, which was held in Russian and English, with simultaneous translation, was attended by national TB, HIV and harm reduction programme managers as well as officials from the penitentiary system, joined by a broad range of TB and HIV/AIDS stakeholders active in the WHO European Region, members of the TB/HIV Working Group, and representatives of non-governmental and civil society organizations.
Agenda, list of participants and presentations from the meeting can be found here.
The meeting report will be available soon.
A one-day workshop for civil society activists from WHO European Region on "Accelerating Advocacy on TB/HIV" was co-hosted by UNAIDS and WHO on 15th July 2010. Presentations and list of participants from the workshop are available here.
TB/HIV at the XVIII International AIDS Conference, Vienna, Austria
18-22 July 2010
SPECIAL SESSION: No More People Living with HIV Dying from TB, Thursday 22 July 2010
At the recently concluded XVIII International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria, a special session was held on HIV associated TB, under the rubric No More People Living with HIV Dying from TB. The special session was intended to raise awareness of the global efforts around TB/HIV issues, offer innovative solutions and call on conference participants to catalyze implementation in their countries and regions particularly to scale up TB prevention including the provision of ART for TB patients living with HIV. It highlighted the importance of political commitment at all levels and increasing resources, including to meet research needs around TB/HIV. The opening address was given by The UN High Representative for Alliance of Civilizations, Dr. Jorge Sampaio, who called for greater political commitment towards ending human rights abuses of people living with HIV and TB, including stigma, discrimination and isolation of particularly vulnerable groups.
A webcast in English from the special session can be found here.
HIV/TB Roadmap for the 18th International AIDS Conference, July 18-23 2010 Vienna, Austria available now!
WHO and UNAIDS, in collaboration the TB/HIV Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership and a number of civil society partners, conducted a workshop to build the capacity of civil society activists, advocates and organizations for people who use drugs in order to engage them effectively in advocacy for improved access to TB and HIV prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for drug users. The workshop was held in Liverpool, UK from June 10-11, 2010. To read more and see the presentations please click here.
16th TB/HIV Core Group
The 16th meeting of the Core Group of the TB/HIV Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership was held in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 26 - 28 May 2010, and hosted by the KNCV Kazakhstan. The meeting reviewed global and regional progress made on the implementation of collaborative TB/HIV activities, progress on implementation of infection control measures, the inter-linkage of drug resistant TB and HIV, prisons and drug use with an emphasis on the Central Asian context. The meeting, which was held in Russian and English, with simultaneous translation, was attended by TB and HIV programme managers or their representatives from four countries of the region (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), as well as senior national representatives of intergovernmental agencies, communities living with the joint epidemics and major funding organisations.
Presentations from the meeting cam be found here >
The meeting report will be available soon.
Living with HIV? How to become part of the TB revolution
Gracia Violeta Ross
Journal of an HIV positive woman activist from Bolivia, March 24, 2010
I am living with HIV for almost 10 years. I am not proud to say that only after 10 years of living with HIV; I accepted the challenge of speaking publicly about Tuberculosis (TB). What took me so long?
Like on my case, there can be many reasons why not many HIV positive advocates don't speak publicly about TB-HIV co-infection:
- As HIV positive activists we just don't take the threat of TB seriously.
- We are too busy traveling around for workshops and meetings.
- We have not been affected by TB personally and that is why we can’t see the danger.
- We don't know the facts of TB in our countries and context.
- We don't know what to do about the topic.
- We don't make a lot of publicity for ourselves if we speak publicly about TB-HIV (For example compare how many Hollywood stars does TB has on its side in comparison with HIV/AIDS).
- We think it is an issue of the poor people living with HIV but not the "leaders" living with HIV.
Coming to analyze these reasons honestly, one comes to the understanding that these are only excuses, not real reasons.
My challenges, my fears, my lack of knowledge on the issue were not something impossible to solve. Some basic information made the difference and could actually help preventing the expansion of TB among my community of HIV positive people.
Entering the TB world, I saw the potential of a shared work, like Michel Sidibe (UNAIDS Executive Director) said in the 3sr Stop TB Forum: "If a virus and bacteria can work so well together, why can't we?"
Some of the questions that helped me getting out of my comfort zone were:
- Do I know how TB affects differently women and men?
- Do I know how to support people living with HIV with an active TB infection without being infected myself?
- Is this a topic that I am ashamed of speaking?
- Is it easier for some people to talk about their HIV status (even as a qualification itself) than to talk about an experience with TB?
- Do I know the statistics of the TB epidemic on my region and my country?
- Do I share with the people who are affected or do I run away from them?
- Do I know how many adherent people living with HIV actually die of TB each year?
- Do I know how smoking increases the risk for TB?
- Do I understand the conditions of vulnerability in which people get a TB infection?
- Do I know how Human Rights are violated when a person living with HIV has MDR TB?
- Can I use my skills as an HIV positive advocate for the empowerment of the TB affected community?
After I was fortunate enough to be elected as the TB-HIV Community Representative in the TB-HIV Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership, I had the chance to learn more. It was not rocket science and many of my fears had not real basis.
If you are an HIV positive advocate, can I ask you to join the TB Revolution?
Be a part of the TB Revolution
International AIDS Conference 2010
Accelerating the implementation of collaborative TB/HIV activities in the WHO European Region
16-17 July, 2010 | Vienna, Austria
The World Health Organization and the TB/HIV Working Group are convening the first European TB/HIV regional meeting entitled Accelerating the implementation of collaborative TB/HIV activities in the WHO European Region in conjunction with the 18th International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria.
The objective of this meeting is to provide an opportunity to share experiences and best practices for enhanced advocacy, resource mobilization and accelerated implementation of collaborative TB/HIV activities within the context of the WHO European Region. This meeting will help countries to ensure the inclusion of key activities including relevant policy and programme changes into national strategic and operational plans.
CROI 2010
TB/HIV Research Frontiers meeting
16 February, 2010 | San Francisco, USA
The Stop TB Department of the World Health Organization and the Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic (CREATE) organized an HIV/TB research frontiers meeting on behalf of the TB/HIV Working Group of the Stop TB Partnership affiliated with the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI 2010) in San Francisco, USA on 16 February, 2010.
This was the fourth in a series of meetings organized by WHO and CREATE since 2007. The meeting was co-chaired by Dr Kenneth Castro, Assistant Surgeon General and Director of Division of Tuberculosis Elimination Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Dr Alison Grant, Head of the Clinical Research Unit in London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The meeting was opened by Dr Diane Havlir, the chair of the TB/HIV Working Group who described the popularity of the meetings among HIV researchers to stimulate scientific debates and discussions around HIV/TB. The meeting was attended by more than 65 HIV researchers and public health policy makers.
Preventive therapy and intensified case finding for TB in people living with HIV
The WHO HIV/AIDS and Stop TB Departments hosted a joint meeting with key experts, 25-27 January 2010, to prepare guidelines on preventive therapy and intensified case finding for TB in people living with HIV. The new guidelines will update the WHO/UNAIDS 1998 Policy statement on preventive therapy against TB in people living with HIV and produce new WHO guidelines, reconceptualising TB preventive therapy and intensified TB case finding, as integral parts of HIV treatment, care and support services.
In 2009, HIV & AIDS Treatment in Practice (HATIP) echoed these sentiments, stating that TB research has long been neglected and under funded. [100KB]. But the participation of Dr Fauci, Nobel Prize winner Dr Françoise Barré-Sinoussi of the Institut Pasteur, and many others from the HIV research establishment at a recent meeting was a clear sign that some of the world's pre-eminent research institutions are finally moving to make TB research a priority. (Read the full article Catalysing HIV/TB Research: a meeting report by Theo Smart, HATIP).
