Collaboration shields AIDS patients from TB: UN

Collaboration shields AIDS patients from TB: UN

AFP – Fri, Mar 2, 2012

Some 910,000 lives have been saved so far under a six-year-old policy of cooperation between AIDS and tuberculosis health services, the World Health Organisation estimated Friday.

The stepped-up collaboration has brought about better protection of AIDS patients against TB, a leading killer of people living with HIV, the Geneva-based UN agency said in a statement.

The number of HIV-positive patients tested for TB grew nearly 12-fold between 2005 and 2010, from 200,000 to more than 2.3 million.

In the other direction, the number of TB patients screened for HIV grew five-fold, from 470,000 to 2.2 million over the same period.

Since HIV weakens the immune system, HIV-positive people are more likely to be infected with TB, and vice versa.

http://news.yahoo.com/collaboration-shields-aids-patients-tb-un-170528769.html