Sally Hargreaves, Senior Editor of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, interviews Karl Ekdahl from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control at the 2008 European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology in Berlin, Germany (November 19-21). Prof Ekdahl discusses the launch of the first ever European Antibiotic Awareness Day campaign that will take place every year on November 18th. The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness among both clinicians and the general public about antibiotic resistance and the appropriate use of antibiotics, which he told TLID is now considered to be a major public health issue across Europe.

Karl Ekdahl interview.mp3 

According to recent WHO data, only 1% of people living with HIV/AIDS have been screened for TB. Some 200 000 co-infected persons died last year in Africa alone, an official estimate that is doubtless too low.

Dr. Jim Yong Kim, of Harvard, called co-infection with TB “an absolutely critical issue”.

Jim Yong Kim

 

He said in some parts of Africa more than 90% of HIV-infected people have TB. The disease can be difficult to diagnose, but TB is curable. The reason for such a low screening rate, he said, is that systems designed for HIV intervention have been relatively narrow ones, focused on providing HIV drugs. What is now needed is an integrated approach to service delivery.

Faith McLellan

The Lancet Countdown to MDG 4 & 5 special issue was launched at a press conference in London on Thursday 10th April. We have recorded the whole event which you can listen to here which includes presentations from:

-Flavia Bustero, Deputy Director, Partnership for maternal, Newborn & Child Health, WHO
-Jennifer Bryce, John Hopkins School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA
-Giulia Greco, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
-Elizabeth Mason, Director of Child and Adolescent Health Department, WHO
and
-Ann Starrs, President of Family care International

The audio also includes the question and answer session with journalists. Peter Salama, Associate Director, Programme Division, UNICEF, joined this session by conference call

Richard Horton, editor of The Lancet, and Richard Lane, web editor, discuss more about the aims of The Lancet Global Health Network–a virtual Global Health think-tank that will bring together scientific research in global health and be an instrument for advocacy.