Video Message to Elected Officials
“TB is preventable, whether people are HIV positive or not. TB treatment gives patients more time. If my brothers had survived TB they might have lived long enough to access HIV drugs like me. They shouldn’t have died.” – Winstone Zulu
Let your elected official know about the tragedy of TB through a powerful video. Ask him or her to take a strong stance on fighting this global epidemic.
Watch this video and then construct your message: Winstone Zulu's story.
Talking Points
Sample Letter
Background Information
Useful TB Fact Sheets
Make sure to send a copy of your letter to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and let us know if you get a response!
TALKING POINTS
- Many people think of TB as a disease of the past, but in reality, over 2 billion people are currently infected with the TB bacterium, roughly one-third of the world’s population.
- In addition, as a result of inadequate treatment, drug-resistant strains of TB are emerging that are much more difficult, and sometimes impossible, to cure. Cases of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) have been found in almost every country of the world.
- Standard and drug-resistant TB are undermining years of progress against HIV/AIDS. TB is the leading killer of people with HIV: individuals are able to live with HIV but are dying from TB. Without proper treatment, 90% of those living with HIV die within months of contracting TB.
- It is lack of political commitment and funding that keeps TB a leading global killer: resources available to adequately tackle the disease have long been insufficient.
SAMPLE LETTER
But please write your own! It is much more powerful that way.
Dear Elected Official:
Please take the time to watch this very important video about tuberculosis, a disease that kills 1.7 million people every year. The video is about one man, Winstone Zulu, who lost all four of his brothers to tuberculosis. The only reason for their deaths and the deaths of the almost two million individuals each year from TB, a curable disease, is a lack of political will. Furthermore, inconsistent and underfunded TB treatment is not only costing millions of lives annually but also resulting in drug resistant forms of tuberculosis that are more expensive and sometimes nearly impossible to treat. These drug-resistant strains pass from person-to-person and country-to-country easily, through the air, and threaten a global epidemic. In addition, TB is the leading killer of people with HIV/AIDS and may undermine years of progress against and substantial resources invested in fighting HIV/AIDS. We have learned to help people live with HIV, but they are dying from TB.
There is no reason for this needless loss of life or threat of a global epidemic. Please watch this video and consider taking a strong stance on increasing resources to fight TB, a completely curable disease.
Sincerely,
Your Name
BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON WINSTONE ZULU
Winstone Zulu was born in 1964 in Lusaka, Zambia, the sixth of thirteen children. After being diagnosed with HIV in 1990, he became the first individual in Zambia to publicly acknowledge his HIV status. In 1997, he contracted TB and, with access to effective medicines and treatment, was cured of the disease within that same year. Today, two-thirds of all Zambians suffering from tuberculosis are also HIV positive, a deadly combination which cuts one’s life span needlessly short. Winstone knows from experience the devastation this co-epidemic can cause. Tragically, he has watched four of his brothers die from TB as a result of a lack of access to the anti-TB drugs that would have cured them and extended their lives. A full course of treatment of these drugs cost as little as US $20 in most parts of the world.
These experiences have made Winstone one of the preeminent global advocates on the dangers posed by the increasing spread of TB. As one of the few African activists involved in the global health movement on AIDS from its earliest stages, he has been able to recognize the threat that TB poses on the modest successes of HIV/AIDS control. Nelson Mandela said of Winstone, “There have been so few TB survivors who have stepped forward to share their stories. We need more advocates like Winstone to tell the world about TB and the effect it has on so many millions of people.”
