HIV patients dying of TB

Tuberculosis is increasingly becoming an illness linked to HIV, the World Health Organization reported Tuesday in Brazil.

One out of every four TB deaths in the world is now related to human immunodeficiency virus, WHO officials said.

Data from 2007 shows there were an estimated 1.37 million new cases of TB among HIV-infected people and 456,000 deaths.

WHO said there has been a huge increase in the number of TB patients being tested for HIV, especially in Africa where only 4 percent were tested in 2004. In 2007, 37 percent of TB patients were tested for HIV, which also is known to develop into AIDS. Several countries reported testing more than 75 percent of TB patients, the report said.

We have to stop people living with HIV from dying of tuberculosis, Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS, said in a statement. Universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support must include TB prevention, diagnosis and treatment. When HIV and TB services are combined, they save lives.