WHAT:
For World AIDS Day (December 1, 2003), the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development and RESULTS hosted a press call addressing the number one health threat facing AIDS patients worldwide: tuberculosis. Leading experts from medicine, philanthropy, public health and drug development discussed a better course for reversing TB, the oldest airborne contagion, now teaming up with HIV/AIDS to sweep the globe.
TB is the number one killer of people infected with HIV worldwide.
In Africa alone, TB kills people infected with HIV/AIDS in just 5-6 weeks.
Treating TB in HIV+ patients today will save lives tomorrow.
Better, faster drugs for TB will stop TB in HIV+ individuals before it becomes infectious and lethal.
WHO:
Experts on the call included:Dr. Helene Gayle, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Gregg Gonsalves, Gay Men's Health Crisis
Dr. Mario Raviglione, World Health Organization
Joelle Tanguy, Global Alliance for TB Drug Development
Moderated by Dr. Joanne Carter, RESULTS