TB kills 1.7 million people every year or 4,500 every day. TB is also the biggest killer of people living with HIV and the third largest cause of death among women of reproductive age. Unlike AIDS, TB is treatable and curable in all but the most extreme cases. What is lacking is not the relevant medical know-how, but the political will and funds to combat the disease. 

The global spending on TB is totally inadequate and the global risk that TB poses is unrecognised internationally especially in the face of new threats from TB-HIV coinfection and the increasing incidence of drug-resistant cases of TB. In light of the 29th anniversary of World TB Day taking place on the 24th of March 2011 we would like to ask our activists to ask your MP to write to Andrew Mitchell MP, Secretary of State for International Development to call on him to create a ‘Framework for Results’ for TB and HIV/AIDS. This framework should include strong results-based objectives on the UK’s contribution to achieving the targets of the new Global Plan to Stop TB 2001-2015. 

(Image courtesy of Mag3737)