Childhood tuberculosis: out of sight, out of mind?
Despite significant improvements in tuberculosis (TB) management under the WHO directly observed treatment, short course (DOTS) strategy, childhood TB has been relatively neglected. Children are at high risk of severe disease, and reactivation of latent infection in adulthood perpetuates the epidemic. Almost a million cases of childhood TB are estimated to occur annually, but good-quality epidemiological data are scarce due to inherent difficulties diagnosing paediatric TB. There remains an urgent need both for better diagnostic tests and for robust regional data on the true burden of disease, otherwise childhood TB will remain an essentially 'invisible' and therefore neglected disease.
Brent
Andrew J
AJ
Wellcome Trust Centre for Research in Clinical Tropical Medicine, Imperial College London, Wright Fleming Institute, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK. dr.a.brent@gmail.com
Anderson
Suzanne T
ST
Kampmann
Beate
B
D000995:Antitubercular Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D023801:Directly Observed Therapy / Q000379:methods; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology
D000995:Antitubercular Agents