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Tip for Teens: The Truth About AIDS
In Botswana, TB is considered to be an AIDS defining illness.
Quoting from the 2003 Second Generation HIV/AIDS Surveillance by NACA
"The rate of reported TB has increased steadily between 1991 and 2002, with an increase of 100% over that time.
In 2002, the BOTUSA project in conjunction with the Ministry of Health conducted a nation-wide multi-drug resistance evaluation.
Among the 2425 TB patients, HIV co-infection rate was found to be 60%.
The increasing number of TB cases has been observed in many countries in Sub Saharan Africa. HIV pandemic has worsened
the problem of TB during the past two decades. HIV infection renders a person infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis much
more likely to develop overt TB and the evolution of the disease is much more accelerated. There is an urgent need for the
provision of not only anti-retroviral drugs, but also drugs for other opportunistic infections, which will reduce the public
health complications of the HIV epidemic and also reduce the incidence of TB."
It should be noted that, unlike AIDS, TB is totally curable. Just like HIV, it is imperative to get citizens to seek testing
for TB and to then begin Isoniazid Preventive Therapy for tuberculosis (IPT): Following a successful pilot, the IPT program
is being expanded nationwide to prevent tuberculosis, the leading cause of death among adults with AIDS in Botswana.
Every person, anywhere in the world, who has had unprotected sex at any time in the past 10-15 years should get themselves
tested at the nearest Voluntary Counseling & Testing Center or at their Doctor's.
Every person who has tested positive for HIV should begin Isoniazid Preventive Therapy regimine for treatment of TB.
Pregnant Mothers who are HIV positive would begin IPT after giving birth.
Every pregnant Mother should enroll in the Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission program.
Link to The BOTUSA Project
Link to NACA (National Aids Coordinating Agency
Link to ACHAP
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