children with tb:

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.