Controlling TB in Children is Key to Fighting the Disease For All

World TB Day on March 24th commemorates the day in 1882 when Professor Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the microbial cause of tuberculosis (TB), Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

In 2002, a large, landmark autopsy study was undertaken by visionary African scientists and pathologists on 164 children who died of respiratory illness in Lusaka, Zambia. The study found that 25% of deaths were due to TB. It was only then that the World Health Organization (WHO) recognised that TB in children was a neglected disease, write Tom Nyirenda, Alimuddin Zumla and Francine Ntoumi for The Conversation.

In 1993 TB was declared a global public emergency of international concern - and still is 30 years later. The focus at that time was on adult TB, while childhood TB was not thought to be important. Accurate evidence of the scale of the problem wasn't available. Over the ensuing decade, thousands of African children died of TB and TB/HIV co-infection every year.

Effective treatment for TB has been available since 1952 but it continues to be the world's top cause of death from a single infectious disease - despite being both curable and preventable.

Covid-19 brought into sharp focus how women bear the brunt of pandemics. In 2021, over three million women and girls fell ill with TB, resulting in 450,000 needless deaths. Nyuma Mbewe and Swati Krishna for Inter Press Service report that, to better understand how gender norms and inequalities increase the burden, stigma and discrimination on women resulting in the failure to prevent, detect and treat TB infection, adopting an intersectional lens is a necessary step.

The World Health Organisation is urging all member states to accelerate the rollout of new WHO-recommended shorter all-oral treatment regimens for drug-resistant TB.

The theme of World Tuberculosis Day this year is short and to the point: 'Yes! We can end TB!'