MEXICO CITY (Reuters Health) -
A new report suggests that
only 1 percent of HIV-positive patients worldwide have been
screened for tuberculosis, a curable infection that frequently
kills those living with the AIDS virus.

The low TB screening rate is “unacceptable,” researchers
from the Advocacy to Control TB Internationally (ACTION)
coalition said during a press conference at the International
AIDS Conference underway here.

“A mere one percent of people living with HIV/AIDS are
reported to have been screened for TB,” said Dr. Jim Yong Kim,
chief of the division of social medicine and health
inequalities at Harvard Medical School. “One of the great
tragedies of this epidemic is that people who are living with
HIV, after hard-fought battles for access to antiretroviral
treatment, go on to die needlessly from TB.”

Quoting WHO statistics, the report says that of the 33
million HIV-positive people worldwide, only 314,394 individuals
had been tested for tuberculosis. Of those who had been
screened, over one in four were found to have active
tuberculosis, according to a press release issued by ACTION.

“Persons living with HIV/AIDS are 50 times more likely to
develop tuberculosis, than those who are HIV negative,” the
release cautions. “Without treatment, approximately 90% of
persons living with HIV/AIDS die within a few months of
developing TB.”

“We are facing a preventable plague inside a devastating
epidemic,” said Michel Sidibe, assistant secretary general and
deputy executive director of UNAIDS.

Screening for tuberculosis is not mandatory in the programs
being funded by the three major international donors — Global
Fund, PREPFAR and the World Bank, the release states.

The ACTION group recommends universal TB screening of all
people living with HIV/AIDS and access to the 3 “I”s —
Intensified case finding, Infection control, and Isoniazid
preventive therapy.

Screening tests for tuberculosis are inexpensive compared
to the cost of the drug cocktails used to treat HIV/AIDS, Kim
said in response to a question at the press conference.

An integrated HIV/TB approach is needed, Kim told Reuters
Health.

“TB is a curable disease,” he said. “It is a crime not to
test for tuberculosis.”