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
Prof. Tom Harrison
Deputy Director of the Institute for Infection and Immunity, Lead for the Centre of Global Health. Professor in Infectious Diseases, St George’s University of London.
Dr. Nadia Ahmed
Consultant in HIV & sexual health medicine at the Mortimer Market Centre, and University College Hospital London. With field experience in Bangladesh, Iran, and Malawi.
Prof. Amina Jindani
Founder of World Without TB, which aims to support and build capacity for clinical trials. Professor in Tuberculosis Therapeutics, St George’s University of London.
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).