Stop TB Partnership

The survey was primarily designed to assess the status of national policies in relation to the latest WHO recommendations in five key areas: diagnosis, models of care, treatment of drug-sensitive (DS) TB, treatment of drug-resistant (DR) TB, and the regulatory environment for TB drugs.

Tuberculosis (TB) is a significant global public health threat. Despite being preventable and curable, the disease is widespread. In 2013, 9 million people fell ill with TB and 1.5 million people died from the disease – including 360,000 people coinfected with HIV.

Who Are the Missed 3 Million: 9 million became ill and 1.5 million died from tuberculosis (TB) in 2013. More than 3 million people with TB were missed and undiagnosed. These include women and children, the poor and malnourished, refugees, migrants, miners, ethnic minorities, homeless and substance users.

The authors describe how judgmental terms such as ‘TB suspect’ can powerfully influence attitudes and behaviour at every level – from inhibiting people to seek treatment to shaping the way policy-makers view the challenge of addressing the disease.

The Stop TB Partnership Coordinating Board has a responsibility towards the global TB community to build awareness, identify key strategic issues affecting TB and to set a strategic direction for the global effort to fight TB. The Coordinating Board is tasked with approving The Global Plan to Stop TB.

This policy document focuses on a collaborative move for the TB and HIV Units of Fiji to have activities that address the interface of the tuberculosis and the HIV and AIDS epidemics either it be from the preventative or the holistic care of patients who are co-infected.

TB is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV (PLHIV). One in five HIV-related deaths is caused by TB. Untreated TB in people with HIV can lead to death in weeks.

It is estimated that one-third of the 40 million people living with HIV/AIDS worldwide are coinfected with TB. Around 75 per cent of coinfected patients live in the African Region. People living with HIV and infected with TB are 30 times more likely to develop active TB disease than people without HIV. TB is also more difficult to diagnose in people living with HIV.

The 2013 Report on Tuberculosis Research Funding Trends: 2005–2012 presents eight years of funding data to characterize annual investments by the world’s leading donors to TB R&D.

A confluence of biologic and social conditions creates the ‘perfect storm’ for the interaction of silicosis, HIV and TB in the mining industry.

In Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), conditions are ripe for TB proliferation.