Estimated number of child household contacts eligible for latent tuberculosis treatment

Abstract

Background: The management of latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) is one of the critical components of the World Health Organization9s (WHO) End TB strategy. While one of the global indicators is the proportion of children Objective: To estimate the number of child household contacts eligible for LTBI treatment by country. Methods: Child household contacts Results: A review of 1605 citations identified 21 studies in low TB burden countries reporting the prevalence of LTBI among child household contacts and the pooled prevalence was 27.6% (95%CI, 19.2-38.0%). Country-level estimates are provided for 35 high TB burden and 88 low TB burden countries. The total numbers of child household contacts eligible for LTBI treatment in 2014 were 3.7 million and 80 thousand in high and low TB burden countries, respectively. Conclusions: The estimates will be useful to monitor the progress in the implementation of LTBI treatment.