On June 9th , in advance of the UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS, there will be a “HIV-TB Global Leaders' Forum.” As civil society groups, it is critical that we use this opportunity to articulate our demands for bold action and specific, concrete outcomes: where’s the plan, where’s the money, where’s the programming on the ground? TB, despite being curable, remains the leading cause of death amongst PLWHA. Public health and human rights demand that urgent action is taking now to stop the unconscionable death of PLWHA due to a curable disease.
We hope that you will join us in signing onto this letter and Civil Society Call to Action and join us in seeking to hold all of our governments and agencies accountable for bold action to reach universal access on high quality TB-HIV services and stop the unnecessary deaths of PLWHAs from TB!
PLEASE RETURN ORGANIZATIONAL SIGNATURES BY WEDS JUNE 4 TO:
Matt Kavanagh at mkavanagh@results.org
In Solidarity,
Paula Akugizibwe, AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa
Matt Kavanagh, RESULTS Educational Fund
Javid Syed, Treatment Action Group
----ORGANIZATIONAL SIGN ONS TO MKAVANAGH@RESULTS.ORG BY JUNE 4--------
Open Letter to the Governments of the World:
As leaders gather in New York for the “Global Leaders Forum on TB/HIV,” we write as civil society groups, advocates, researchers, and groups of people living with TB and HIV from around the world to demand concrete action on TB and HIV.
We express our collective outrage that TB, despite being curable for over a half century, continues to be the leading cause of death of People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWH/A). We call on governments and multilateral institutions to take bold and concrete action—and commit ourselves to the same—to ensure that every person in need receives high quality TB and HIV treatment, prevention, diagnostics and care.
Enclosed here you will find a call to action from Civil Society—as we add our voices to the leaders gathered in New York June 9^th . In 2006, the UN Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS called for “accelerated scale-up of collaborative activities on tuberculosis and HIV, in line with the Global Plan to Stop TB.” Since then some nations have seen major scale-up, but the vast majority of people with TB/HIV co-infection still do not have access to coordinated services.
The world must treat TB/HIV as the crisis that it is. In Sub-Saharan Africa currently up to 50% of people living with HIV will develop TB—they are 30 times more likely to develop active TB. Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB, including Extensively Drug Resistant (XDR) TB, is poised to become the next pandemic—and already has frighteningly high mortality amongst people with HIV. An effective response must be mobilized immediately.
*We understand that, if universal access to existing high quality TB/HIV care and services were available by 2015, we could likely cut the current mortality rates by 80%--saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people each year. *As a matter of urgency, we call upon governments of the world to move beyond declarations and provide the /plans/, the /resources/, and the /effective programs/ to stop these intertwined pandemics.
*We demand that governments /immediately and publicly announce:/*
1. *UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY TB/HIV CARE BY 2015: *By 2015, in high burden areas, every person living with HIV should be screened for TB, every person with TB should be offered HIV counseling and testing, and treatment, prevention, and care must be universally available and coordinated for both diseases. This must be coordinated with a scale up to Universal Access on HIV by 2010.**
2. *FULL FUNDING: *Donor and high burden country governments must announce specifically how they will fund the /at least/ *$19 billion through 2015* needed to ensure existing high quality TB/HIV care is available to all and that new tools are on the way.**
3. *REDUCE TB/HIV MORTALITY:* Country plans should monitor progress to reduce mortality to no more than 90,000 by 2010 and 50,000 by 2015—an 80% reduction over our current course.
4. *21st CENTURY DIAGNOSTICS & TREATMENT: *A tangible global commitment must be announced to developing and ensuring access to 21st century diagnostic and treatment tools so that co-infected people are screened and treated more effectively.
Signed
[LIST IN FORMATION]
ActionAid International
African Services Committee, USA
AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa
AIDS Law Project, South Africa
Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV/AIDS (APN+).
Association African Solidarité, Burkina Faso
British Columbia Lung Association, Canada
Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Division of Social Medicine and Health
Inequalities, USA
Burundian Human Rights League Iteka
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition
Child Foundation of India
Christian Aid, United Kingdom
Coalition of Women Living with HIV and AIDS in Malawi
Consortium to Respond Effectively to the AIDS/TB Epidemic (CREATE), USA
Estonian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS
European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG), Belgium
François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights, USA
Fundación Huésped, Argentina
Global Action for Children, USA
Global AIDS Alliance, USA
Global Health Advocates, India
Global Harmony, India
Goodwill Aid, Ghana
Grupo Português de Activistas sobre Tratamentos de VIH/SIDA (GAT), Portugal
Guyana Rainbow Association
Harvard Medical School, Department of Social Medicine, USA
HealthGAP (Global Access Project), USA
INSA India
Initiatives for Research and Training for Development, Cameroon
Initiative for Community Development, Nigeria
Intimate Friends International, Cameroon
Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium
KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation, The Netherlands
Lanka+, Sri Lanka
LHL - Norwegian Heart and Lung Patient Organization
Living Positively, Canada
Media Network on HIV/AIDS and Development (MedNAD), Nigeria
Migrant Clinicians Network, USA
Mozambique AIDS Treatment Access Movement
MSM: No Political Agenda (MSMNPA), Trinidad & Tobago
National Group of TB People, Pakistan
Network of Zimbabwean Positive Women (NZPW+)
New Jersey Medical School Global Tuberculosis Institute, USA
Observatoire des Droits des Personnes Infectées et/ou Affectées par le
VIH/SIDA (odpia+), Burundi
Partners In Health, USA
PATH, Cambodia
Participatory Development Action Program (PDAP), Bangladesh
Pinoy Plus Association—Association of People Livng with HIV/AIDS,
Philippines
Positive Life Association of Nigeria (PLAN), Nigeria
Puerto Rico Community Network on Clinical Research on AIDS
Réseau Nigérien de Personnes Vivant Avec le VIH/SIDA, Nigeria
RESULTS Educational Fund, USA
RESULTS Canada
RESULTS Japan
RESULTS UK
Southern Africa HIV/AIDS Information Dissemination Service
Spiritia Foundation, Indonesia
STOP TB Italy
St Mary Cottage Hospital, Kenya
Task Force of Empowerment for Migrant Workers and Spouses, Malaysia
Target Tuberculosis, United Kingdom
Treatment Advocacy and Literacy Campaign, Zambia
Treatment Action Movement (TAM), Nigeria
Treatment Action Group, USA
Zambia Association for the Prevention of HIV and Tuberculosis (ZAPHIT)