To See an End to AIDS, International Community Must Put an End to TB

In this Politico opinion piece, Desmond Tutu, archbishop emeritus of Cape Town, South Africa, and Gerry Elsdon, a South African businesswoman and television host -- both tuberculosis (TB) survivors -- write that one priority at the XIX International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2012) in Washington, D.C., this week "should be spearheading a joint global effort against HIV and tuberculosis." They write, "The rationale for a joint effort is clear," adding, "Where HIV and TB are most common, the epidemics have merged, or are in the process of merging, into a single co-epidemic," and "[t]hose whose immune systems are weakened by HIV are at extreme risk of dying from TB." They conclude, "Thanks to a series of recent scientific breakthroughs, this week's conference is the first in 30 years that has activists seriously contemplating the end of AIDS. Yet to see a real end to AIDS, we must put an end to TB. So let's combine our efforts to reach these two goals" (7/24).