Childhood Tuberculosis

Abstract

Children constitute approximately 11% of the global tuberculosis (TB) burden each year. Diagnosing TB in children can be challenging; bacteriological confirmation is often not possible and symptoms are frequently non-specific. Making a diagnosis therefore requires the synthesis and combination of varying sources of evidence. While the ultimate goal of a bacteriological confirmed diagnosis can be elusive, all efforts should be made to collect samples to identify Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Effective treatment regimens are available for both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB in children with good outcomes if appropriate regimens are started early. However, several treatment challenges remain, such as optimal dosing of first- and second-line drugs, shorter treatment regimens (for drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB, and TB meningitis), availability of child-friendly formulations and dosing and safety studies for new TB medications and regimens.

Preventing TB is central to reducing the global TB burden. Providing effective TB preventive treatment to child contacts of both drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB source cases therefore should be a high priority, and effective preventive therapy regimens are available. Several novel preventive regimens have recently been developed which require further evaluation in young children.