What's New

The sexual partners and drug injecting partners of people diagnosed with HIV infection have an increased probability of also being HIV-positive. Assisted HIV partner notification services are a simple and effective way to reach these partners, many of whom are undiagnosed and unaware of their HIV exposure, and may welcome support and an opportunity to test for HIV. Assisted partner notification has been an important public health approach in infectious disease management for decades, including in programmes for sexually transmitted infections and tuberculosis, but has not been routinely implemented for people with HIV.

The global HIV epidemic claimed fewer lives in 2015 than at any point in almost two decades, and fewer people became newly infected with HIV than in any year since 1991. The list of countries on the brink of eliminating new HIV infections among children keeps growing. A massive expansion of antiretroviral therapy (ART) has reduced the global number of people dying from HIV-related causes to about 1.1 million in 2015 – 45% fewer than in 2005. UNAIDS/WHO estimates show that more than 18 million people were receiving ART in mid-2016.

2015 confirmed a significant recent trend in the flagship WHO Model List of Essential Medicines with groundbreaking new treatments for hepatitis C and a variety of cancers included in the list despite their high prices. The list also included five new medicines for multidrug resistant tuberculosis (TB), among other updates. Traditionally considered a tool for developing countries to use as a guide for national medicines selection, the WHO Essential Medicines List is increasingly seen as a tool to increase access globally.

This report is an excellent review of the current status and future plans for the control of TB in the SAARC Region. It includes information on burden of tuberculosis in the SAARC region, including incidence, mortality along with the MDR-TB, TB/HIV confection, etc. It also covers the information of the year 2014 and has been prepared on the basis of information collected from member countries during the year 2015 and by reviewing other related documents.

A confluence of biologic and social conditions creates the ‘perfect storm’ for the interaction of silicosis, HIV and TB in the mining industry. This phenomenon is best documented in the mining industry of South Africa, but evidence is emerging that similar patterns are developing elsewhere. However, research outside of sub-Saharan Africa is sparse, thus limiting the understanding of the need for interventions.

This document provides information about best practices on treatment, care and support on Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS in SAARC Member States. Best practices comprise examples of programmes, projects and activities that have been shown to contribute towards making interventions successful. We have made maximum efforts to focus on the detail information on the “Best Practices” and epidemiological information about Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS situation in SAARC Member States.

MDR-TB is essentially a human-made problem that develops because of low-quality drugs and/or inadequate treatment regimens, and it is difficult and expensive to treat. The development of migrant-sensitive TB control policies is especially critical given the high mobility of migrants—which increases the likelihood of transmission and treatment default, their lack of access to health-care services, their often dire living conditions and their propensity to inadequately self-treat in the private sector. In formulating such policies, however, policy-makers should note that TB is primarily transmitted within migrant communities, with very limited evidence of transmission from migrant groups into host country populations. This consensus-based document offers a direction for countries to gradually move towards, subject to their existing national laws and regulations. It is the product of a regional consultation of health and immigration officials from 13 Western Pacific Member States conducted 26–27 March 2013 in Manila, 12 of which endorsed the document. One Member State, while recognizing the importance of addressing TB control in migrants, withheld its support until a broader regional consensus on migrant health is reached.

PEPFAR Technical Considerations for COP/ROP 2016 were released at the beginning of February 2016. Within the document, PEPFAR reiterates its endorsement of the UNAIDS Fast-Track 90-90-90 targets for 2020 and highlights the importance of implementing collaborative TB/HIV activities as key to achieving these targets. It urges PEPFAR teams to ensure universal ART coverage (100%) for HIV-infected TB patients, through the support of integrated models of HIV/TB care to detect HIV-associated TB and provide ART in TB clinics. It further points out that viral suppression is only achievable if people living with HIV are alive, on ART, and virally suppressed. If PLHIV become ill and die of TB, the question of viral suppression becomes irrelevant. Furthermore, TB is known to worsen HIV progression and thereby leads to higher viral load. Hence the scale-up of TB screening and TB case-finding, IPT and TB infection control are key to contributing to long-term viral suppression for PLHIV on ART.

The gender assessment was planned to identify gaps in TB and HIV services, which will be shared with relevant stakeholders for further policy level integration into overall health framework and vision. This will assist both programs to assess HIV and TB care context and response from a gender perspective, and help in shaping response from gender lens to reduce the dual burden of HIV and TB infection.

The term long-acting ARV injectable refers to an antiretroviral drug that is delivered via an injection and persists in the body for an extended period of time. This infographic details the process for developing long-acting injectables for PrEP and treatment.