Annulling a dangerous liaison: vaccination strategies against AIDS and tuberculosis

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and Mycobacterium tuberculosis annually cause 3 million and 2 million deaths, respectively. Last year, 600,000 individuals, doubly infected with HIV and M. tuberculosis, died. Since World War I, approximately 150 million people have succumbed to these two infections—more total deaths than in all wars in the last 2,000 years. Although the perceived threats of new infections such as SARS, new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and anthrax are real, these outbreaks have caused less than 1,000 deaths globally, a death toll AIDS and tuberculosis exact every 2 h. In 2003, 40 million people were infected with HIV, 2 billion with M. tuberculosis, and 15 million with both. Last year, 5 million and 50 million were newly infected with HIV or M. tuberculosis, respectively, with 2 million new double infections. Better control measures are urgently needed.