Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the oldest diseases known to mankind, yet it is the second leading cause of death from an infection worldwide today. In the absence of epidemiological data, TB in children was not considered significant and research efforts did not prioritise this group. More recently, there has been renewed interest in childhood TB, leading to improved understanding of the fundamental differences between children and adults in relation to both TB infection and disease. Children with TB infection have a high risk of rapid progression to disease which leads to challenges in diagnosis but also offers the opportunity to investigate biomarkers for infection, progression and protection. This review discusses the most relevant advances in the understanding of epidemiology, diagnosis and prevention of children with TB. It also highlights challenges and research priorities in childhood TB, which include better diagnostic tests, accurate correlates of protection and an improved vaccine.
Highlights
Recent work based on phylogenetic analysis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains goes further to suggest that M. tuberculosis has been infecting humans for more than 70,000 years [1]
The modern humans who migrated from Africa around 62,000 to 75,000 years ago were responsible for the early worldwide spread of TB
The definition used in this country includes confirmed cases (M. tuberculosis detected by culture or nucleic acid amplification testing) as well as non-confirmed cases, which are defined as patients treated for TB disease with at least three anti-tuberculous drugs
Summary
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the oldest diseases known to mankind, yet it is the second leading cause of death from an infection worldwide today. There has been renewed interest in childhood TB, leading to improved understanding of the fundamental differences between children and adults in relation to both TB infection and disease. Children with TB infection have a high risk of rapid progression to disease which leads to challenges in diagnosis and offers the opportunity to investigate biomarkers for infection, progression and protection. This review discusses the most relevant advances in the understanding of epidemiology, diagnosis and prevention of children with TB. It highlights challenges and research priorities in childhood TB, which include better diagnostic tests, accurate correlates of protection and an improved vaccine
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
