Today, 40 million people worldwide are living with HIV/AIDS. Every day 14,000 people become newly infected. Members of high risk groups often face prejudice and denial of treatment. One third of the world's population carries the Tuberculosis (TB) bacterium in the form of a latent infection and up to 40 percent of those with HIV die of TB. Both the HIV/AIDS and TB epidemics are hindering the development of democratic societies as they deplete and divert resources, kill present and future generations, and foster hatred and intolerance. The Open Society Policy Center has five primary goals regarding HIV/AIDS and TB:

• Encouraging the U.S. to contribute its fair share to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund was established in 2002 to channel large additional financing to combat the three diseases. It currently works in 124 countries and is in the process of coming to scale.
• Ensuring HIV prevention for the most vulnerable communities. Outside of Africa, 30% of new infections are attributed to injection drug use. OSPC supports harm reduction strategies; effective drug treatment, including the use of drug substitution therapies; drug policy that supports public health goals; and HIV treatment for difficult to reach communities.
• Increasing U.S. funding for TB treatment, including support for the Global TB Drug Facility, which has helped to reduce the price of TB treatment to just $10.
• Ensuring adequate attention is paid to the twin epidemics of TB and HIV. TB is the leading killer of people living with HIV/AIDS. The HIV epidemic has also caused a resurgence of TB worldwide.
• Ensuring that U.S. bilateral funding is not compromised through unnecessary funding restrictions.