Welcome News In the Fight Against MDR-TB and HIV
By David Marbaugh
Today's guest blog comes from Lilly's Vice President of Global Health Programs and Access, Dr. Evan Lee.
An encouraging new study covered by the Ne w York Times today offers evidence that people living with the double-burden of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and HIV/AIDS can be treated successfully for both conditions.
The data, published this month in the International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, found that in a group of South African patients infected with MDR-TB and HIV, the mortality rate was 86 percent lower for patients that started treatment for both diseases simultaneously versus those that were treated sequentially (i.e. who started HIV treatment only after completing MDR-TB treatment).
While the sample size is small, the findings are statistically significant and very promising for global health. As I noted on World AIDS Day last year, we simply cannot win the fight against TB or HIV/AIDS without addressing their devastating interaction in patients. In 2012, 1.1 million people worldwide were co-infected with TB and HIV, and 320,000 people with HIV died from TB.
To read more about the significant progress being made, please read our blog.
