Neglected Diseases

26 November

An event on HIV, Tuberculosis, and cryptococcal meningitis

Prof. Tom Harrison, Lead for the Centre of Global Health, St George’s University of London.

Dr Nadia Ahmed, Consultant in HIV & sexual health medicine, University College Hospital London.

Prof. Amina Jindani, Founder of World Without TB, which builds capacity for clinical trials.

Our Speakers

Did you know, Tuberculosis, caused by mycrobacterium tubercolosis, might be the oldest human disease. It affects almost all parts of the body – the bones, the blood, the brain. Highly infectious, it is carried in tiny droplets through the air from person to person (McMillen, 2016). 

One might almost believe that HIV has a cloak of invisability, rather than a series of costumes like influenza. The first few decades of research on HIV were nightmarish, because of HIV’s uncanny ability to become invisible in our immune systems and to our treatments (Wayne, Bolker, 2015). 

TB is the leading cause of death among people with HIV in resource-limited settings. Two other leading causes are cryptococcal meningitis, which is responsible for one in five HIV deaths, and severe bacterial infections. All three are preventable and treatable – if detected early (van Cutsem, 2020).