HIV and TB – Are They Linked And How Can You Tell?

Swaziland currently faces two epidemics in the form of HIV and Tuberculosis – diseases which are affecting 190,000 and 16,000 people respectively. These active and life-threatening diseases affect such a large proportion of the community, but there are more living with a silent and latent form of TB which is undiagnosed. When these two health problems form, it causes a serious concern. The HIV infection triggers the latent form of TB, which doesn’t show any symptoms, to develop into a contagious and potentially fatal TB disease. In turn, the TB bacteria accelerates the HIV virus to progressing into AIDS, which weakens the immune system gradually until it can’t fight disease anymore. Across the world, more than 430,000 people suffering with HIV die of Tuberculosis every year.

In order to reduce these figures, the services for HIV and TB need to be more readily available in order to give people the opportunity to get tested and treated for the conditions. Everyone who is being treated for TB should also be tested for HIV to catch this epidemic early and solve it. The treatment for TB in HIV patients included isoniazid preventative therapy, which reduces the risk of the TB disease developing by nearly two-thirds. Reducing the risk of active TB by as much as 65 percent, anti-retroviral therapy has also been proven to be effective. By integrating the treatments for HIV and TB, there’s a chance that we can reduce the amount of fatalities that arise from a lack of preventative measures.

Campaigners have noted that more screening needs to be done in harder-to-reach populations too, such as transgender people, drug users, sex workers and gay communities so that everyone can begin their treatment as early as possible. Once the resources have been provided, the goal of reducing the number of people suffering with these diseases will hopefully decrease.