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Women, Children & TB: New Treatments to Save Families The impact of tuberculosis (TB) on women and children must be told as two parts of one terrible story. Mothers with TB can easily spread the disease to their children, jeopardizing both their near-term survival and long-term security. TB often infects children in its deadliest form. If children are to survive, the effects of the disease could still be devastating. TB negatively impacts parents’ ability to work, further entrenching families in the cycle of poverty. In 2010, according to the World Health Organization, about 10 million children were orphaned after their parents died of TB. For more information, visit www.tballiance.org/children TB Alliance operates with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, AIDS Clinical Trial Group, UK aid, Irish Aid, UNITAID, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), European Commission, Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund, National Institute Of Allergy And Infectious Diseases (NIAID), and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). For more information on TB drug development and TB Alliance, please visit www.tballiance.org.
TB OFTEN INFECTS CHILDREN IN ITS DEADLIEST FORM Ripple Effect TB causes a ripple effect through families, often starting with a mother. Worldwide, some 900 million women of reproductive age are infected with TB, and at least 2.5 million every year develop active TB. In settings in which HIV is prevalent, a woman’s risk of developing TB is substantially increased, and further so during pregnancy. Poor women are also less likely to receive diagnostic and treatment services. Women with TB pose a threat to their children, even before that child is born. Infants born to women with TB face a number of complications including higher rates of premature birth and low birth weight. After birth, children have a high risk of being infected with TB by their family members. As an air-borne disease, the natural closeness that is between mother and child can actually be a death sentence, increasing the risk of child mortality. The risk is even greater among those living in poverty, who very often live in small, crowded conditions with poor ventilation, which is conducive to the spread of the disease. Often, mothers infected with TB are ostracized from their own household in an attempt to protect their children from the disease. The transmission of the disease further entrenches a cycle of poverty in which the sick are made poor, and the poor are at increased risk of sickness. As the disease passes from adult to child, the poverty cycle tightens its inter-generational grip. Repairing Families through Research TB is among the top 10 causes of illness and death among children. It is also a major cause of death in infants infected with HIV, even those being treated with anti-retrovirals. Importantly, it is often noted that TB in children is a barometer for TB in a community. The WHO reports that 550,000 children became ill with TB and 80,000 children died from the disease in 2013. Some experts believe that due to challenges in diagnosing pediatric TB, the true burden of the disease in children is considerably higher. Still, little has been done to ensure children get the treatment they need. New technologies are critically needed to reduce the burden of TB on men, women and children, and to create healthy families that can break the poverty cycle. Today, there are no appropriate tuberculosis drugs that are made for children. However, amid a renaissance in TB drug development, TB Alliance is working to ensure that children are not left out and proper child-friendly TB drugs are developed as quickly as possible. At the same time, improved treatment for adults will help to shrink the reservoir of adult TB patients who can infect children. Further, a better functioning marketplace and better informed regulatory community will help reduce the lag between the development of new drugs for adults and their adaptation for use in children.
Page 1 and 2: A FAMILY DISEASE, A FORMIDABLE BURD
Page 3: TB MEDICINES FOR CHILDREN ARE NEEDE
Page 7: “ THERE CONTINUES TO BE A HUGE GA

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