NEW YORK, 2 September: Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB and UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé together witnessed, first-hand, delivery of integrated hiv and tb services during a visit to the Socio-Medical Centre in Biryogo.
– It is gratifying to be at this clinic, which has intensified tb case finding in people living with hiv through tb screening and transferring confirmed cases to a tb clinic. In addition patients who enrol at the health centre with tuberculosis are also tested for hiv and those found to be hiv positive are given integrated care and support. It is a programme that reflects Rwanda’s impressive progress nationwide on coordinating tb and hiv services, said Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB.
Mr Sidibé highlighted the progress Rwanda has made in improving the outcome of tb and hiv co-infection through better collaboration and the use of innovative diagnostic technology and underlined the UN’s commitment to effectively tackling the dual epidemics.
– I am pleased to see that Rwanda is leading Africa and the world in taking an integrated approach to dealing with the interlinked epidemics of tb and hiv. Rwanda’s bold leadership is achieving impressive results that show the rest of Africa what can be achieved, said Mr Sidibé said.
Mr Sidibé emphasize that tackling tb and hiv jointly is a priority for UNAIDS and, as stated in the UNAIDS Outcome Framework 2009-2011, it is one of the nine key areas for achieving results with the final goal being that no person living with hiv should die of tb.
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