Alarm raised over low TB detection in children
A medic helps a resident onto a platform of the digital x-ray machine during a Tuberculosis (TB) screening drive at Magadi Catholic Church in Manyatta slums in Kisumu on March 17, 2021.
What you need to know:
- The African region is home to 17 of the 30 countries with the highest TB burden globally and accounts for around 322, 000 children and young adolescents (aged 0—15 years) or a third of tuberculosis cases among those under 15 years of age worldwide.
- Of particular concern is that two-thirds of children in the region are unreported or undiagnosed for the disease, leading to an increased risk of rapid disease progression and mortality, especially in younger children.
The African Union (AU) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have called for an immediate and comprehensive action to end the significant toll of tuberculosis among children in Africa.
The appeal was made jointly with the Elizabeth Glaser Paediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and the Stop TB Partnership on the side-lines of the Seventy-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lomé, Togo. This comes after experts found that low detection of T) arising from challenges in specimen collection as well as bacteriological confirmation is immensely affecting the management of the disease.
“The African region is home to 17 of the 30 countries with the highest TB burden globally and accounts for around 322, 000 children and young adolescents (aged 0—15 years) or a third of tuberculosis cases among those under 15 years of age worldwide.
“Of particular concern is that two-thirds of children in the region are unreported or undiagnosed for the disease, leading to an increased risk of rapid disease progression and mortality, especially in younger children. Among children under five, just around a third (32 per cent) are diagnosed – the smallest proportion globally,” they highlighted while adding that bacteriological confirmation of the disease among children who can display non-specific clinical symptoms overlap those of other common childhood diseases.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO Regional Director for Africa, is of the view that TB epidemic among children in the region has been occurring in the shadows and has until now been largely ignored. “We hope this call will galvanise action and ensure no child in Africa is lost to a disease tha’s now history in many parts of the world. Strong political leadership, accountability, financial support and global solidarity are critically needed to increase access to effective diagnostics, medications, vaccines and other tools for tuberculosis control,” he said.
While dissecting the role of political leadership towards ending childhood TB by 2030, the AU, WHO, EGPAF and Stop TB Partnership called for swift measures to accelerate recovery from the impact of Covid and urged countries to facilitate the scale-up of child-friendly TB diagnosis, treatment and care.
“One child dies of tuberculosis somewhere in the world every two minutes even though the disease is curable and preventable.Children with tuberculosis are almost never spreading the disease and are always infected by an adult, so their suffering is a metric of our failures to diagnose and treat the disease in children,” highlighted Dr Lucica Ditiu, executive director of Stop TB Partnership.
“We call on all our partners to be committed, united and learn from our achievements and mistakes to ensure that an airborne disease hundreds of years old like TB is not a threat for the generations to come.”
Under the WHO End TB Strategy, the global health regulator urges countries to aim to reduce TB cases by 80 pe rcent and cut deaths by 90 per cent by 2030.
The 2020 milestone sought a 35 per cent reduction in tuberculosis deaths and 20 per cent decline in cases.
Only six countries with high tuberculosis burden met the 2020 case reduction milestone and just six achieved the target to reduce deaths by 35 percent.
“Ensuring we meaningfully invest in the tools and technologies needed to respond to the tuberculosis pandemic guarantees that the global health community can save the lives of thousands of people living with or at risk for TB infection. However, should we fail to prioritise children and adolescents in these efforts, we will ultimately fail at achieving our goal of realising a future free from tuberculosis,” said Chip Lyons, President and Chief Executive Officer of EGPAF as the partners called on African countries to prioritise funding for tuberculosis prevention and control and allocate sufficient financial, technical and human resources to accelerate progress towards ending the disease in children and adolescents.
“Currently, investment and funding for tuberculosis control in Africa remains low, jeopardising the efforts to meet the global target of ending the disease by 2030.
The African region requires at least US$ 1.3 billion for tuberculosis prevention and treatment every year, yet countries contribute 22 per cent of the needed budget while external funding accounts for 34 per cent.
The rest of the budget remains unfunded,” the partners observed.
