Mandela: Target TB in fight against AIDS
Former South African president Nelson Mandela has called for stepped up efforts to control tuberculosis, saying the fight against AIDS is incomplete without targeting the lung disease.
“TB is too often a death sentence for people with AIDS. It does not have to be this way,” said Mandela, who successfully battled tuberculosis while in prison during the apartheid era. He did not take questions during his brief remarks to reporters at the International AIDS Conference in Thailand.
Tuberculosis is one of the most common diseases that attacks AIDS patients after their immune system has been destroyed by the virus. Many people with HIV die prematurely from TB because they are not treated in time.
“The world has made defeating AIDS a top priority. This is a blessing, but TB remains ignored,” said Mandela, who will be 86 on Sunday.
He noted that mankind had known the cure for TB for more than 50 years. But what had been missing was the “will and the resources to quickly diagnose people with TB and get them the treatment they need”.
“We can’t fight AIDS unless we do much more to fight TB as well,” Mandela said to loud applause by scores of activists, admirers and staff, who joined the packed news conference – the most well-attended at the six-day conference.
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