Management of Tuberculosis in Children and New Treatment Options

B.      J. Marais; H.      S. Schaaf; P.      R. Donald

Abstract

Childhood tuberculosis (TB) continues to be a neglected disease in areas where limited resources restrict the focus of national TB control programmes to only the most infectious sputum smear-positive cases. However, appreciation that children contribute a significant proportion to the global TB disease burden and suffer severe TB-related morbidity and mortality is growing. The World Health Organization (WHO) published guidelines on the management of paediatric TB in 2006 and child friendly drug formulations have been made available to deserving nations via the Global Drug Facility (GDF) since 2008. These advances also served to emphasize the considerable programmatic barriers that remain in resource- limited settings. This review provides an overview of current treatment practices, presenting the authors personal perspectives on issues related to the treatment of childhood TB, together with a brief synopsis of potential future treatment options.

Keywords: Pediatric tuberculosis, management, treatment, TB, infectious sputum, GDF, current treatment practices, childhood TB, future treatment options, children, bacterial pneumonia, HIV, respiratory disease, first-line antibiotics, endemic areas