Utrecht, 26 June – In a joint appeal published in The Lancet, 44 leading scientific and social organisations from across the globe including The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS)  and its partner organisations, are calling on Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to take urgent action to save millions of young lives by protecting them against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

GAVI is a global partnership that works to ensure access to life-saving vaccines for children in the poorest countries. In collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and other partners and donors, Gavi has already saved millions of lives by vaccinating children against other major life-threatening diseases.

RSV is a highly contagious virus that causes serious illness in many young children every year. Worldwide, more than 100,000 children under the age of five die from RSV every year, with 97% of these occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).  Infants under six months old are particularly vulnerable, accounting for approximately 45% of RSV-related deaths.  These deaths and serious illnesses can be prevented by vaccinating mothers or by giving babies protective treatment after birth.

In 2018, the Gavi Board acknowledged RSV as a priority and signalled support for adding RSV immunisation to its vaccine portfolio, as soon as effective products have been approved by the Strategic Advisory Group of experts (SAGE) of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and sufficient funding is available.

Now, two highly effective products have been approved and introduced in many high- and upper-middle-income countries: the RSVpreF vaccine for pregnant women and RSV monoclonal antibody Nirsevimab for newborn babies. In 2024, the WHO’s SAGE recommended that “All countries introduce products for the prevention of severe RSV disease in infants.”

The availability of sufficient funding is a prerequisite for GAVI to expand its vaccine portfolio with products that protect infants against RSV. However, global funding for vaccination programmes is under growing pressure. This has far-reaching consequences for countries with high child mortality and places additional pressure on Gavi’s budget and its ability to support the introduction of new life-saving interventions.

Heather Zar, paediatric respiratory health specialist at the University of Cape Town and a FIRS and a Pan African Thoracic society Ex-Co member who co-authored the letter, said:

“RSV is a major cause of pneumonia, hospitalisation and deaths in low- and middle-income countries.  But this burden is now preventable with one of two new highly effective interventions that are being widely used in high income countries.  However, it is urgent that these become available and accessible to all infants especially in areas with the greatest burden globally. On behalf of 44 global leading scientific and social organisations we urge the Gavi board to prioritise RSV prevention and expand access to protect all children against RSV disease, regardless of where they are born.”

Media contact: Fiona.salter@firsnet.org

International Respiratory Societies Unite on World Bronchiectasis Day 2025 to Urge Global Awareness and Collaboration

This Rare Lung Disease is Increasing; Members of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies Unite to Improve Early Detection

JULY 1, 2025 – According to the 2022 Global Impact of Respiratory Disease Report, the global presence of non–cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis ranges from 67 to 566 per 100,000 inhabitants in Europe and North America and from 1,200 per 100,000 inhabitants in China in those aged 40 or older.

In support of World Bronchiectasis Day, July 1, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which GOLD is a founding member, is calling attention to the growing burden of this lesser-known chronic lung disease and the urgent need for increased awareness, diagnosis and coordinated care.

Bronchiectasis is a lung disease that affects hundreds of thousands of children and adults worldwide. With this chronic illness, the airways become enlarged or scarred, making it difficult to clear mucus properly, leading to recurring lung infections and affecting daily life. Unmanaged, bronchiectasis can lead to accelerated lung function loss resulting in long-term disability and premature death. The disease can occur at any age, though most people are diagnosed later in life. Although there is currently no cure, detecting and treating bronchiectasis early can improve quality of life and improve long term health.

While bronchiectasis is often referred to as a rare disease, its occurrence is increasing globally. In children, especially those in poor communities, bronchiectasis may occur following a lower respiratory tract infection or pneumonia such as whooping cough or viral infection.

“Bronchiectasis continues to be a widely misunderstood and underdiagnosed respiratory disease, affecting individuals around the world,” says Guy Marks, President of FIRS. “As global leaders in respiratory health, World Bronchiectasis Day is an opportunity for us to spotlight this chronic lung disease and the people it impacts. We stand together to advocate for better care pathways, patient education and research funding.”

Celebrated annually on July 1, World Bronchiectasis Day aims to unite healthcare providers, researchers, patients and advocacy organizations in a shared mission: to improve early detection, foster research into the causes and treatments of bronchiectasis, and ensure that patients across all regions have access to comprehensive, multidisciplinary care.

The 2025 World Bronchiectasis Day campaign emphasizes the importance of cross-border collaboration, particularly in regions where bronchiectasis is underreported and underdiagnosed or healthcare systems face barriers to early diagnosis and long-term management.

To learn more about bronchiectasis and to support annual World Bronchiectasis Day, visit worldbronchiectasisday.org.

About the Forum of International Respiratory Societies
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world’s leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 100,000 members globally.

FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latino Americana De Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

Stop tobacco industry tactics targeting young people, say international lung health experts

On World No Tobacco Day (31 May, 2025) the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), including member GOLD, supports the World Health Organization’s (WHO) efforts to expose and condemn the tobacco industry’s harmful tactics—many of which are aimed at young people.

This year’s World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) – themed ‘Unmasking the appeal: Exposing industry tactics on tobacco and nicotine products’ – aims to reveal the strategies employed by the tobacco and nicotine industries to make their harmful products enticing.

FIRS, founded by leading international respiratory societies and representing over 100,000 respiratory health professionals, joins the WHO in raising awareness, advocating for stronger policies—including a ban on flavours that make tobacco and nicotine products more appealing—and protecting public health.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 88 countries have no minimum age for purchasing e-cigarettes, and 74 countries lack any form of regulation for these products. According to the most recent WHO data, only four countries ban all flavours in e-cigarettes, while another four allow or restrict specific flavours. Just 11 countries prohibit all forms of advertising, promotion, and sponsorship of e-cigarettes, compared to 36 with partial bans, and six with no regulations. These gaps leave young people particularly vulnerable to targeted e-cigarette marketing.

FIRS supports the WHO’s call for a collective commitment to a healthier future and calls for policies to protect young people to be implemented as soon as possible.

Dr Filippos Filippidis, Chair of the European Respiratory Society’s Tobacco Control Committee, said: “The tobacco industry has always been targeting young people, making their products appealing using various strategies. Many countries have made substantial progress in limiting this ability through comprehensive bans in advertising and promotion, plain packaging, health warnings and restrictions on flavours. However, we continue to see products such as heated tobacco, e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches being successfully marketed to young people. The rise in the use of these products is a concerning trend that requires urgent action, both at a political and societal level.

“By working together to bring about a tobacco-free generation, we can help save millions of lives. The most important thing we can do right now is ensure that the tobacco industry cannot freely appeal to young people – we must create a sensible barrier to protect them from harmful products.”

More information on this year’s WNTD can be found on the WHO website.

Make Inhaled Treatments Accessible for ALL, Say Respiratory Health Organizations

The Forum of International Respiratory Societies launches new campaign to increase access to asthma treatment.

On World Asthma Day 2025 (6 May), the call to action is clear: ‘Make Inhaled Treatments Accessible for ALL’. To highlight the lack of access to inhaled medicines for asthma and COPD in low-resource, high-burden settings, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is launching an education campaign Increasing Access to Inhaled Medicines. The campaign will engage governments, the United Nations, global health agencies, industry, donors and civil society organizations to take coordinated action to ensure availability of proven, effective treatments. GOLD is a founding member of FIRS.

Asthma affects over 260 million people and causes more than 450,000 deaths each year. It is also the commonest chronic disease in children and adolescents, affecting around 15% of young adolescents globally.  Most of these deaths are preventable. Inhaled corticosteroid-containing medications are essential for managing asthma and preventing life-threatening attacks. But in many low- and middle-income countries—where 96% of global asthma deaths occur—access to these proven treatments remains dangerously limited.

Frontline healthcare professionals are critical to improving outcomes for people with asthma – we urge doctors and health care professionals to ensure that every individual with asthma receives appropriate, evidence-based treatment. This includes prescribing essential inhaled corticosteroid-containing medication—either alone or in combination with a reliever—to reduce the persistent burden of preventable asthma-related morbidity and mortality.

On World Asthma Day, FIRS and its members call on all sectors to step up efforts to ‘Make Inhaled Treatments Accessible for ALL’.

World Asthma Day was first organised by the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) in 1998 and has grown each year to become one of the most important asthma events globally, with hundreds of awareness-raising activities taking place all over the world.

GINA’s global asthma strategy and resources are available at www.ginasthma.org and www.ginasthma.org/reports.

For more on asthma treatment, watch and listen to the ATS Breathe Easy podcast on biologics to treat asthma.

FIRS Increasing Access to Inhaled Medicines campaign aims to improve availability of essential inhaled therapies for asthma and COPD in low-resource, high-burden settings. The campaign will engage governments, international agencies, industry, donors and civil society to take coordinated action. With the 2025 UN High-level Meeting on NCDs approaching, the campaign highlights the urgent need for investment and policy change to ensure equitable access to effective, affordable inhaled medicines. Learn more here.

No More Excuses: Break the Chain of Transmission to End Tuberculosis – World TB Day 2025

Respiratory societies urge prioritization of TB detection and treatment in high-burden areas.

On World TB Day 2025, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), co-founded by GOLD, urges all stakeholders—governments, agencies, NGOs, academics, civil society and donors— to focus on evidence-based policies and programs that will break the chain of transmission to end TB in high-burden settings.

Dr Cassandra Kelly-Cirino, Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), a FIRS member, states: “We must be brave and recognize that our current approach is not going to achieve our goals – ending TB by 2030 or 2035.

“It is total injustice and failure by us all that millions of people around the world are still at high risk of TB. There are simply no more excuses for this inequity and suffering from this ancient and preventable disease.”

According to the World Health Organization’s latest Global Tuberculosis Report:

• In 2023, an estimated 10.8 million people fell ill with TB and there were an estimated 1.25 million deaths worldwide
• Between 2020 and 2023, the TB incidence rate (new cases per 100,000 population per year) is estimated to have increased by 4.6%, reversing declines of about 2% per year between 2010 and 2020.
• Approximately 2.7 million people were undiagnosed with the disease or not officially reported to national authorities in 2023.

Dr Kelly-Cirino continues: “While many people in high-income countries believe TB is a disease of the past (because it generally is, in their countries), it is very much present and impacting lives, in most countries of the world. It is an ancient disease that thrives on the kind of instability we are currently seeing due to conflict, political uncertainty and climate change.

“TB is an airborne infectious disease that does not respect borders. We all must play our part in eradicating TB in high-burden settings. TB anywhere is TB everywhere.”

The current difficult funding and geopolitical landscape requires the prioritization of interventions that will have the most impact on reducing TB incidence rates (i.e. the rate of new TB infections). These interventions already exist – community-wide active case finding linked to effective treatment of people who have TB.

Prof Guy Marks, President of FIRS and The Union, explains: “In high-burden settings we must prioritize finding and treating everyone with TB. This is the only way to stop more people from being exposed, becoming infected, and infecting others. This is how we to break the chain of transmission and end TB once and for all.

“The effectiveness of this approach to end TB was proven during the latter half of the 20th century in several countries in Europe, North America, east Asia and Oceania, as well as Cuba.”

There is no ignoring the devastating impact the US Government’s decision to cut funding is having on global health and the most vulnerable people in our communities.

Dr Kelly-Cirino concludes: “Now is not the time to cut funding and engagement in the fight against TB – we can do that once the job is done. We urge communities to pressure their leaders to end TB. In 2025, no one should expect to be at high risk of being infected with TB.

“We call on world leaders and donors to fulfil their commitment to end TB, by significantly investing in breaking the chain of transmission to ensure all their citizens are safe from being infected in the future.”

The Forum of International Respiratory Societies Calls for Urgent Action to Expand Access to Pneumonia Prevention and Treatment Worldwide

On World Pneumonia Day, 12^th November 2024, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which GOLD is a founding member, is calling for urgent action to prevent pneumonia deaths among high-risk groups particularly children younger than five years and older people.  New effective preventive interventions are available, but these are still inaccessible in many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Prof Heather Zar, of the Pan African Thoracic Society Executive Committee, a FIRS member, says:

“New, highly effective interventions to prevent Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) pneumonia in infants and young children have recently become available and can substantially reduce the burden of childhood pneumonia and mortality.  However, access and affordability in LMICs is crucial to reduce global inequity and promote health for all children, especially as most severe illness occurs in LMICs.”

In 2021, pneumonia claimed the lives of 2,2 million people including 502,000 (23%) children aged less than 5 years and 152,000 (7%) newborn babies. The pneumonia burden remains unacceptably high, especially as most deaths are preventable.  In addition, early life pneumonia may lead to poorer health through life and contribute to the development of chronic respiratory disease in adulthood.

S. pneumoniae (pneumococcus) remains one of the most important bacteria causing pneumonia across age groups, while RSV is a major cause of pneumonia and hospitalization in children and older people. However, there are now effective vaccines for these. Pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, a highly effective vaccine preventing pneumonia from S pneumoniae has been available for over two decades but is still not accessible to many children in poor areas. New, highly effective vaccines against RSV are now available. These include vaccines specifically for older adults, a vaccine for pregnant women, and a long-acting antibody to protect infants and young children. However, there is very limited availability of these in LMICs despite the large number of children and older adults developing severe pneumonia in these countries and excellent protection offered by vaccination.

Most deaths occur in the poorest populations in LMICs. Key risk factors for pneumonia include air pollution, malnutrition, smoke exposure, HIV infection, and low vaccination rates. For young children, prematurity and lack of breastfeeding are additional risks. Limited access to effective treatment of pneumonia is also a concern, especially in many LMICs, where healthcare facilities and oxygen systems are often unavailable, particularly for children.

Although pneumonia deaths have substantially declined over the past decade, urgent efforts are still needed to improve access to effective prevention and treatment. On World Pneumonia Day, FIRS is calling on governments and partners to:

• Ensure equitable and sustained access to vaccines against the commonest pathogens.
• Ensure access to new highly effective preventive interventions against RSV for infants and young children globally.
• Strengthen health systems to deliver interventions which reduce pneumonia deaths, including provision of effective vaccines, antibiotics and oxygen delivery systems.
• Strengthen national and international commitment to support interventions against the leading risk factors for pneumonia.
• Improve support for research into cost-effective interventions to prevent and treat pneumonia in LMICs.

About the Forum of International Respiratory Societies
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world’s leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally.

FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latinoamericana de Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

Respiratory Societies Help in Bringing the World Together for Bronchiectasis

On World Bronchiectasis Day, members of the Forum of International Respiratory Societies bring awareness to a chronic lung disease
JULY 1, 2024

In support of the third annual World Bronchiectasis Day, July 1, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which GOLD is a founding member, is joining the COPD Foundation and several global organizations to raise awareness, share knowledge, and discuss ways to reduce the burden of bronchiectasis for patients and their families worldwide.

This year’s World Bronchiectasis Day theme is focused on research and the importance of participation in clinical trials, how research can impact innovation in bronchiectasis diagnosis and treatment, and how registries work to aid research efforts.

Bronchiectasis is a lung disease that affects an estimated one million individuals worldwide of which roughly 400,000 are in the United States. The number of affected individuals is likely even higher due to the probability of misdiagnosis with bronchiectasis. In this illness, the airways become enlarged or scarred, making it difficult to clear mucus properly, leading to recurring lung infections. Symptoms include frequent coughing (often with thick, discolored mucus), sputum production, breathlessness, repeat chest infections, increased tiredness, unexplained fever, chills, sweats and weight loss, and chest pain.

In addition, bronchiectasis:

• can occur at any age and is diagnosed by chest computed tomography (CT) scans.
• causes a significant burden on patients and their families. It can lead to accelerated lung function loss which can result in long-term disability and premature death in adults.
• has been associated with disparities in morbidity and mortality outcomes in the socioeconomic disadvantaged.

Although there is currently no cure, detecting and treating bronchiectasis early can improve quality of life and long-term health.

“As the prevalence of bronchiectasis increases, it is vital that we continue to advance research efforts to improve diagnosis and treatment of this chronic lung condition,” said Tim Aksamit, MD, medical director of Bronchiectasis and NTM 360, and a pulmonology and critical care medicine physician at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA. “The COPD Foundation and its global lung health partners are dedicated to advocating for increased research and to providing free educational materials that can help improve the lives of those living with bronchiectasis.”

Learn more about bronchiectasis in this introduction video with Dr. Aksamit. For more information about participating in World Bronchiectasis Day and a full list of activities, visit WorldBronchiectasisDay.org.

About the Forum of International Respiratory Societies:

The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organisation comprised of the world’s leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally.

FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latinoamericana de Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

Asthma Education is Key to Reducing Deaths Worldwide, Say Respiratory Health Associations

On World Asthma Day 2024 (7 May), the message is clear: “Asthma Education Empowers.” The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which GOLD is a founding member, stresses the crucial role of education in empowering people with asthma to manage their condition effectively and to know when to seek medical assistance.

FIRS also urges healthcare professionals to enhance their awareness of the preventable morbidity and mortality from asthma and of the published evidence on effective asthma management, so they are equipped to provide reliable information and optimal treatment for their patients.

Asthma is one of the most common chronic non-communicable diseases that affects over 260 million people and is responsible for over 450,000 deaths each year worldwide, most of which are preventable.

Key universal issues on which education is required are:
• under- or inaccurate diagnosis,
• underuse of anti-inflammatory inhaled corticosteroid inhalers,
• overuse, and over-reliance on short-acting beta2–agonist (SABA) inhalers,
• poor recognition of patients requiring specialist assessment and further management.

In low-middle-income countries, lack of availability of inhaled medicines and especially inhaled corticosteroid-containing inhalers is a major contributor to the fact that more than 90% of asthma deaths occur in these countries.

FIRS calls on policymakers and the pharmaceutical industry to recognize the ongoing issue of preventable illness caused by this common disease, despite the existence of highly effective controller treatments, and to step up efforts to make sure environmentally friendly inhaled medications are available in all countries, ensuring everyone has access, “leaving no-one behind”. Read more www.ginasthma.org/reports.

World Asthma Day was first held in 1998, and, has grown each year to become one of the most important asthma events globally. On World Asthma Day, hundreds of awareness-raising activities will take place in countries all over the world. Further information about GINA and World Asthma Day can be found at GINA’s website: ginasthma.org. Documents detailing GINA’s global strategy for diagnosis, management, and prevention of asthma are also available at ginasthma.org.

About the Forum of International Respiratory Societies
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organization comprised of the world’s leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally.

FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latino Americana De Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

Additional World Asthma Day Resources:

• World Asthma Day: WHO calls for better education to empower people living with asthmaGARD collection: Asthma Education
• Empowers | Knowledge Action Portal on NCDs (knowledge-action-portal.com)

Break the chain of transmission to end tuberculosis – World TB Day 2024

Respiratory groups call for comprehensive TB screening in high-burden settings.

24 March 2024

On World TB Day, 24 March 2024, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which GOLD is a founding member, calls on all stakeholders, including multilateral agencies, governments, national and local programmes, non-governmental organisations, academics, activists and donors to focus on activities that will break the chain of transmission in high-burden settings in order to end tuberculosis (TB).

In high-burden settings, TB is endemic: meaning everyone is at risk, all the time, through the unbroken chain of transmission. To break the chain, it is critical that we screen everyone in high-burden settings for TB, so that we can find and treat all people with TB and prevent them from infecting others. The latest evidence shows that in high-burden settings, most people with infectious TB do not have symptoms (such as, cough or fever) and many are not members of high-risk groups. Hence, it is vital that screening for TB is not limited to those with symptoms or those who are members of high-risk groups.

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, before the availability of vaccines, this approach of widespread testing, was rolled out by governments across the globe and proved to be highly effective in controlling the spread of COVID-19.

Professor Guy Marks, President and Interim Executive Director of the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), a member of FIRS, says: “We must be brave and recognise that the current strategy to end TB in high-burden countries is not achieving the results we hoped for. We need to change our approach if we are to win the fight against this infectious disease.”

In 2022, 10.6 million people fell ill with TB and 1.3 million died from the[i] disease – more deaths than from any other infectious disease[ii].

Professor Marks explains: “The incidence of TB in high-burden countries is falling at a glacially slow pace. The simple reason for this is that far too many people with TB remain undiagnosed and untreated, often because they do not experience or recognise symptoms that lead to a diagnosis. These people are infectious and can transmit the infection to others in their households, workplaces and communities. So, the transmission continues: more people are infected and many of them develop TB.”

It was the same with COVID-19, another airborne infection, where much of the spread in the community occurred from people with infectious COVID-19 who did not have symptoms.

Professor Marks adds: “The latest evidence suggests that in high-burden settings, most people with TB have been recently infected (within the last two years). This means that reducing the rate of new infections (or reinfections) with TB can have a big impact on preventing people from becoming sick with TB, and hence, breaking the chain of transmission and ending TB.”

The standard approach to controlling TB has been to wait for people to seek care, be correctly diagnosed and take medication. However, we now know that many people with infectious TB do not have symptoms, and as a result, do not visit healthcare facilities seeking care.

Additionally, those who do seek care often encounter hurdles in terms of accessing diagnosis and treatment, due to TB not being appropriately prioritised by healthcare systems.

Professor Marks concludes: “These strategic and operational modifications will not achieve an end to TB in isolation. They must be accompanied by a change in public mindset and behaviour towards TB.”

About the Forum of International Respiratory Societies

The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organization comprised of the world’s leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally.

FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latino Americana De Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

The Global Impact of Respiratory Disease report outlines major causes of respiratory disease and lays out recommendations for global action.

[i] https://www.who.int/news/item/07-11-2023-tuberculosis-response-recovering-from-pandemic-but–accelerated-efforts-needed-to-meet-new-targets

[ii] https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284273#pone.0284273.ref001

Eradicating HIV Will Take Collaborative Action and a Commitment to Curb TB Infections

The Forum of International Respiratory Societies Highlights World AIDS Day.

The COVID-19 pandemic hampered progress in fighting tuberculosis infections worldwide. Diverted funds meant that one of the world’s leading infectious killers caused 1.3 million deaths in 2022. TB is also the leading cause of death among those with HIV /AIDS worldwide. In 2022, 167,000 people died of HIV-associated TB.

This World AIDS Day, the Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS), of which GOLD is a founding member, calls on governments, health advocates, and non-government organizations to strengthen their response to AIDS and TB. This collaborative effort is necessary to help realize the World Health Organization’s goal of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.

“People with latent TB who are living with HIV should have access to TB prevention therapy,” said American Thoracic Society (ATS) President M. Patricia Rivera, MD, ATSF. “Studies show that this therapy can reduce the chances of dying from TB and AIDS by nearly 40 percent.”

ATS began in 1905 as the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis. Today, the ATS and other FIRS members, representing the world’s leading respiratory societies, are working to improve lung health globally.

In the developing world, TB is often the first sign a person has HIV. Yet, about half of the people living with HIV and tuberculosis are unaware of their co-infection and, therefore, not receiving appropriate care that could prevent not only serious illness but death, according to WHO.

Shortly after AIDS emerged, it fueled a global resurgence of TB that continues in many low- and middle-income countries. In 2022, the WHO reported that the largest number of new TB cases were in WHO’s Southeast Asia Region (46 percent),  followed by the African Region (23 percent) and the Western Pacific (18 percent). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV infection is the greatest risk factor for progressing from latent to active TB.

HIV increases the risk of other infectious respiratory diseases, including Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia and bacterial pneumonia, both of which can be life threatening. There is also an increased risk of non-infectious lung complications.

Education, prevention strategies, and new medicines, particularly antiretroviral therapies, have reduced the number of AIDS-related deaths by 69 percent since the peak in 2004.

Still, the WHO estimates that in 2022, an estimated 39 million people were living with AIDS, 1.5 million of them children.

FIRS believes a global response to HIV/AIDS can be strengthened by:

• Increasing awareness of the continuing global threat of HIV-related disease and its link to TB and other respiratory diseases.
• Improving the health outcomes of people living with HIV through patient care and research into better prevention, early diagnosis, and effective treatment strategies for both HIV and TB, including rapid diagnosis and treatment for multidrug-resistant TB that is harder to cure.
• Reducing the incidence and severity of HIV-related disease by strengthening mother-to-child transmission prevention programs and increasing the early use of antiretroviral therapy.
• Improving HIV education in at-risk communities to reduce the incidence of new HIV infections.
• Reducing HIV-related health disparities and inequities.

“The good news is that antiretroviral therapies work, and TB is preventable and curable,” Dr. Rivera said. “These two facts, along with the millions of lives that we can save, should be motivation enough to ensure that these medical advances are available to everyone.”

About the Forum of International Respiratory Societies
The Forum of International Respiratory Societies (FIRS) is an organization comprised of the world’s leading international respiratory societies working together to improve lung health globally. The goal of FIRS is to unify and enhance efforts to improve lung health through the combined work of its more than 70,000 members globally.

FIRS comprises the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), American Thoracic Society (ATS), the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology (APSR), Asociación Latino Americana De Tórax (ALAT), European Respiratory Society (ERS), International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases (The Union), Pan African Thoracic Society (PATS), the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA), and the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD).

The Global Impact of Respiratory Disease report outlines major causes of respiratory disease and lays out recommendations for global action.