On the occasion of World AIDS Day, Stop TB Partnership, an international body with the power to align actors all over the world in the fight against tuberculosis, warns that a further increase in mortality of TB patients living with HIV can be expected in the coming years mainly due to decrease in care activities because of significant funds shortage. TB deaths among people living with HIV had increased for the first time since 2010, with 214 000 deaths in 2020. 

Before 2020, TB deaths among people living with HIV were declining. In 2020, this decline was reversed due to the COVID-19 pandemic leading to reduced access to TB diagnosis and treatment services. Worldwide, TB remains the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, said a statement issued by Stop TB Partnership. 

“Every day, close to 600 people living with HIV die from TB—yet most of these deaths could have been averted,” said Dr. Lucica Ditiu, Executive Director of the Stop TB Partnership. “It is so upsetting to see that HIV prevention and treatment extends people’s lives, only to see one in three of them dying because of TB. At the moment, people living with HIV face a triple burden of disease, threatened not only by HIV itself but also by COVID-19 and TB. We might not be able to prevent all co-infections, but we definitely know how to prevent, and treat, TB. Still, TB funding remains pathetically low compared to other disease areas, and insufficient even for diagnosis and treatment,” she added.