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https://theconversation.com/tb-in-children-isnt-being-controlled-its-key-to-fighting-the-disease-for-everyone-else-201966>
"World TB Day on March 24th will commemorate the day in 1882 when Professor
Robert Koch announced in Berlin that he had discovered the microbial cause of
tuberculosis (TB),
Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
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.
In 1993 TB was declared a global public emergency of international concern and
still is 30 years on. The focus at that time was on adult TB. At the time
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.
It took visionary leadership from African scientists and pathologists to
conduct a large, landmark autopsy study in 2002 on 164 children who had 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.
Despite that recognition, serious investment into early diagnosis, treatment
and prevention of childhood TB have not been forthcoming. Systemic health
services challenges and lack of adequate knowledge around the disease also
hamper improvements.
Based on our combined four decades in TB research we believe that the burden of
childhood TB can be one of the indications of a failing TB control programme in
any setting.
In 2021, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with TB worldwide. This was
made up of six million men, 3.4 million women and 1.2 million children. Of the
1.6 million people who died in 2021, 240,000 were children. Almost all were
undiagnosed before death.
This reflects the dire need to prioritise childhood TB. Its early detection and
treatment must be part of the global strategy to end TB."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
