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. 2025 Mar;30(11):2500172.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.11.2500172.

Increase in tuberculosis among children and young adolescents, European Union/European Economic Area, 2015 to 2023

Veronica Cristea  1 , Csaba Ködmön  1 , Joana Gomes Dias  1 , Senia Rosales-Klintz  1 ; paediatric TB expert group  2
Collaborators, Affiliations

Increase in tuberculosis among children and young adolescents, European Union/European Economic Area, 2015 to 2023

Veronica Cristea et al. Euro Surveill. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

As tuberculosis (TB) in children is an indicator of ongoing transmission, we analysed surveillance data to understand the increase in notified TB cases among individuals aged < 15 years in the European Union/European Economic Area countries between 2015 and 2023. Several factors may have contributed to this increase, such as improved diagnosis and reporting, migration and the COVID-19 pandemic. The observed increasing trend, albeit low in absolute numbers, emphasises the importance of early case finding and timely prevention.

Keywords: RR/MDR-TB; intrathoracic tuberculosis; paediatric tuberculosis; pre-XDR-TB; pulmonary tuberculosis; tuberculosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: None declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Number of notified tuberculosis cases and proportion of paediatric tuberculosis cases (n = 16,414) among all tuberculosis cases (n = 393,104), European Union/European Economic Area countries, 2015–2023
Figure 2
Figure 2
Paediatric tuberculosis, by age and origin, European Union/European Economic Area countries, 2015–2023 (n = 16,414)a
Figure 3
Figure 3
Trend of paediatric tuberculosis, European Union/European Economic Area, 2012–2023 (n = 23,313)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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