For people living with HIV, tuberculosis is a big problem. It is the leading cause of death among those with HIV, who are 14 to 18 times more likely to fall ill with the disease than those without HIV, according to the World Health Organization. Latent TB infections can more easily progress to full disease due to the weakened immune system of people with HIV. Around 1 in 3 AIDS-related deaths in 2021 were also due to TB.
The dual risk has been on the global health community’s mind in recent decades, with acknowledgment that the two diseases need to be tackled together: The provision of antiretroviral therapy, or ART, to people living with HIV and diagnosed with TB averted an estimated 74 million deaths between 2000 and 2021.
“One hundred percent, the two diseases have to be in people’s heads together,” said Helen Bygrave, a chronic disease adviser at Médecins Sans Frontières who focuses on sub-Saharan Africa. “The integration of services has been a key element programmatically for MSF’s work. The idea is to make sure everybody we’re diagnosing with HIV is properly screened for TB and, likewise, anybody diagnosed with TB is tested for HIV and then appropriately started on ART.”