As the United Nations geared up for its May 31 – June 2 high level meeting on HIV/AIDS (or UNGASS Review Meeting), the TB Alliance helped organize a briefing on the deadly combination of TB and HIV/AIDS, in collaboration with Treatment Action Group (TAG), RESULTS Educational Fund, and the Open Society Institute’s Public Health Watch.
The special briefing, entitled "TB-HIV and Achieving Universal Access," offered UNGASS delegates and civil society representatives an opportunity to learn more about the role of the UNGASS review process in addressing the co-pandemics.
The session was moderated by Javid Syed, TB/HIV Project Director at TAG, who explained that TB is the leading infectious killer among HIV-positive people. Winstone Zulu, a TB/HIV advocate and recent recipient of the Kochon prize, related his personal experience with the co-pandemic and its devastating impact on his community in Zambia. Gregg Gonsalves, of the International Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC), explained the need for integrated TB/HIV advocacy that pushes for a more effective response to the two diseases. Siddhi Aryal, of Oxygen Research and Development Forum in Nepal, discussed the need for new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines to fight TB, and explained how these new technologies will also benefit those co-infected with HIV. Lastly, Olayide Akanni, from Journalists Against AIDS and OSI’s Public Health Watch, spoke about the need for greater commitment to jointly address TB and HIV. The meeting concluded with an open discussion moderated by Nina Schwalbe, Director of Policy for the TB Alliance.
The TB Alliance also organized a roundtable for U.N. delegation members in early May, at the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations. Nina Schwalbe and TAG Executive Director Mark Harrington discussed the relationship between TB and HIV and provided recommendations on how Member States could better address the co-pandemic through the UNGASS process.
The goal of the UNGASS Review Meeting was to look at progress made in implementing the 2001 Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, and to renew political commitment toward fighting the disease. Recognizing that TB was not included in the 2001 document, the political declaration of the 2006 meeting asks Member States to:
Emphasize the need for accelerated scale-up of collaborative activities on tuberculosis and HIV in line with the Global Plan to stop TB 2006-2015 and investment in new drugs, diagnostics and vaccines appropriate for people with TBHIV co-infection.