Synergistic Pandemics: Confronting the Global HIV and Tuberculosis Epidemics

This supplement was envisioned to summarize the critical issues related to the 2 most deadly infectious diseases worldwide: human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and AIDS and tuberculosis (TB). Together, these infections—1 viral and 1 bacterial, 1 recently emergent and 1 ancient—kill almost 4 million persons every year, most of whom live in developing nations. In tandem, HIV infection and TB create a deadly synergy. TB is the leading cause of death among persons with HIV infection, and areas with a high prevalence of HIV infection have had dramatic increases in the incidence of TB disease. The US government has played a leadership role in addressing the HIV and TB pandemics, most recently through the enactment of the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Authorization Act of 2008, which authorized $48 billion over 5 years to combat these deadly infectious diseases in developing nations. We hope that this supplement of scientific review articles focused on HIV infection prevention, TB, and HIV and TB coinfection will serve as a resource for policy makers, HIV and TB program