A childhood free from tuberculosis (TB)
Tuberculosis (TB) is a major killer of children in poor countries. Over 250,000 children develop TB and every one minute two children die of TB worldwide. It has been estimated that as many as one third of the world’s population is infected with TB, and an estimated 20-50% of children who live in households where an adult has active tuberculosis, become infected. “Also the power to resist TB infection is normally poor in the first 5 years of life, as the immune system is less developed. The resistance can be further reduced by malnutrition, HIV, other childhood infections and worm infestations – all too common in poor countries” said Professor (Dr) Surya Kant, from CSMMU. Good words of caution before the XVIII International AIDS Conference (IAC) opens in Vienna, Austria next week. Read more
Yet Paediatric TB does not have a high priority in many developing countries as fewer children than adults have the disease and children are not usually infectious, and often, limited resources mean that infectious cases have priority.
Although the TB vaccine, BCG, does limit some of the severe forms of tuberculosis, but by no means does it prevent them all. Thousands of such “immunised” children in the developing world still suffer from tuberculosis meningitis and other forms of disease. A vast number of children infected remain undiagnosed – creating a reservoir of future adult disease.
Hence there is need to prioritize diagnosis, prevention and treatment of TB as well as TB-HIV co-infection in children.
“Childhood TB is difficult to detect. The infected child usually has no external symptoms and remains quite well. There would be no reason for the parents to see their medical doctor. The ‘disease’ is self-limiting” said Dr Muherman Harun from Jakarta, Indonesia, in an online consultation hosted by the CNS Stop-TB Initiative, and the global Stop-TB eForum that was established by the Health & Development Networks (HDN) in early 2001.
Dr Muherman continues: