The World Health Organization, in collaboration with the Stop TB Partnership, is organizing a ministerial panel on TB/HIV on the sidelines of the 2016 UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS on 8 June in New York. Ministers from Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa - countries with some of the highest burden of HIV-associated TB - will participate along with representatives from civil society, USAID, RESULTS, The Global Fund and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Tuberculosis (TB) ranks alongside HIV as the world’s top infectious disease killer. In an era of greater access to antiretroviral therapy, TB remains a leading killer of people living with HIV. In 2014, 1 in 3 HIV deaths was due to TB.
In order to reach the ambitious UN Sustainable Development Goal targets of ending AIDS and TB by 2030, unprecedented and intensified efforts are needed to scale up HIV and TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment services for people living with HIV, their families and community members. Ending TB deaths among people living with HIV requires greater political commitment, country ownership and