By CLARE NULLIS
Old drugs, outdated tests, empty promises, new threats. Such is the bleak reality surrounding an international tuberculosis conference opening Thursday in a city scarred by a killer combination of TB and AIDS: an already nightmarish scenario worsened by the spread of virtually untreatable strains
The 3,000 delegates will spend four days discussing the challenges posed by the dual epidemics of TB and HIV -- which are still often treated separately, although they feed off each other. About one-third of the world's 40 million people infected with the AIDS virus have TB, the vast majority of them in Africa. TB kills more than 1.6 million
"Unlike bird flu, the global threat of HIV/TB is not hypothetical
it is here now. But the science and coordination needed to stop it are utterly insufficient," said Veronica Miller
The only available vaccine was invented more than 85 years ago and fails to protect most people beyond childhood
were developed 120 years ago
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