The International Community of Women Living with HIV Eastern Africa (ICWEA) is uniting with the world today in calling for an end to Tuberculosis (TB).
The World Health Organization (Who) estimates that at least one – third of the nearly 36 million people living with HIV/AIDS are also infected with TB. The 2014, Global WHO report indicates that TB killed 1.5 million people; 1.1 million HIV-negative and 0.4 million HIV-positive. The toll comprised 890,000 men, 480, 000 women and 140,000 children.
TB remains the leading killer of people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa, the disease kills more women each year than any other infection especially because there are more women living with HIV.
TB is even more disastrous for women living with HIV who have poor access to health services, making them particularly vulnerable to the outcomes linked to undetected or late detection of the TB disease.
The three East African countries (Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya) remain among the 22 TB high burden countries in the world. It doesn’t help that case detection and treatment success are still low in East Africa.
TB is treatable and curable, we can end it if we commit to diagnosing TB, effectively treat it and end the TB epidemic in our community. Community engagement and empowerment in implementation, is critical if TB is to be eradicated.
ICWEA calls upon world leaders, policy makers and implementers to meaningfully involve women living with HIV and promote accountability to end the TB epidemic.
We also recommend that TB treatment and care for Women living with HIV be elevated as a key women’s health issue. TB screening, prevention and treatment should be made part of HIV, reproductive health and maternal and child health services for women living with HIV.
We call upon our government, all partners and stake holder in TB response to urgently develop and implement clear plans for sustainable TB financing and scale up beyond current donor funding continue engagement with women living with HIV.
On this day, we, women living with HIV unite to improve health service delivery and accountability in order to end TB!
Download statement here
