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Review
. 2008 Mar;102(3):217-8.
doi: 10.1016/j.trstmh.2007.09.011. Epub 2007 Nov 9.

Childhood tuberculosis: out of sight, out of mind?

Andrew J Brent  1 , Suzanne T Anderson, Beate Kampmann
Affiliations
Review

Childhood tuberculosis: out of sight, out of mind?

Andrew J Brent et al. Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2008 Mar.

Abstract

Despite significant improvements in tuberculosis (TB) management under the WHO directly observed treatment, short course (DOTS) strategy, childhood TB has been relatively neglected. Children are at high risk of severe disease, and reactivation of latent infection in adulthood perpetuates the epidemic. Almost a million cases of childhood TB are estimated to occur annually, but good-quality epidemiological data are scarce due to inherent difficulties diagnosing paediatric TB. There remains an urgent need both for better diagnostic tests and for robust regional data on the true burden of disease, otherwise childhood TB will remain an essentially 'invisible' and therefore neglected disease.

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