Message on World Tuberculosis Day 2010

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UNAIDS Executive Director

Michel Sidibé

24 March 2010

In this era of increasing access to antiretroviral therapy, it is unacceptable that tuberculosis remains among the commonest causes of illness and death in people living with HIV.

Even though TB is preventable and curable it continues to claim the lives of half a million people living with HIV each year. The HIV community cannot stand by and let this happen. Left unchecked TB and drug resistant TB - which knows no borders - could spread and become an even more severe global health threat.

The world has already committed to reducing new TB cases and deaths under Millennium Development Goal 6. However, I call on the HIV community to go one step further: We must commit to halving TB deaths in people living with HIV by 2015.

UNAIDS is firmly committed to achieving this goal through the Joint Outcome Framework. Let us join hands with the TB community to raise awareness of TB among people living with HIV, strengthen joint community responses to HIV and TB and increase access to the most effective and integrated TB prevention, diagnostic and treatment services for people living with HIV.

We can do much more to stop TB.

We can stop people living with HIV from dying of TB.

On this World TB Day I call on all our partners to make a pledge – halve TB deaths in people living with HIV by 2015 and bring hope to millions of people.

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