There is an urgent need to reduce tuberculosis among children in Africa, the African Union and the World Health Organisation (WHO) say.

Speaking yesterday on the sidelines of the 72nd session of  WHO’s Regional Committee for Africa, held in Lomé, Togo, the two called for immediate and comprehensive measures to reduce the disease. 

The appeals were made jointly by Elizabeth Glaser (Pediatric Aids Foundation) and the Stop TB Partnership.

The African region is home to 17  of the 30 countries with the highest tuberculosis burden globally. It accounts for 17 nations, with about 322,000 children and young adolescents aged 0 to15 years.

This is a third of all such tuberculosis cases worldwide.

Of concern is that two-thirds of children in the region are unreported or undiagnosed for the disease, leading to increased progression and mortality.  Among children under five years, only about a third (32 per cent) are diagnosed. This is the smallest proportion globally.

Low detection of tuberculosis arises from challenges in specimen collection and bacteriological confirmation of the disease among children, who can display non-specific clinical symptoms.

Additionally, children and young adolescents usually access primary healthcare or child health services in facilities where the capacity to diagnose tuberculosis is often limited. Also, malnutrition worsens the impact of tuberculosis. Globally, 19 per cent of all tuberculosis cases are associated with malnutrition.

“Undernourished children with tuberculosis are susceptible to extensive and severe complications,” said Minata Samate Cessouma, the Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development at the African Union Commission.

“Innovative interventions are needed to integrate tuberculosis diagnosis in nutrition programmes to identify the disease in children quickly,” said Cessouma.

Swift measures

To end childhood tuberculosis by 2030, the African Union, WHO, EGPAF and Stop TB Partnership called for swift measures to accelerate recovery from Covid-19 effects.

“One child dies of tuberculosis somewhere in the world every two minutes, even though tuberculosis is curable and preventable. Children with tuberculosis almost never spread the disease and are always infected by an adult. So their suffering is a metric of our failures to diagnose and treat tuberculosis,” said Dr Lucica Ditiu, the director of Stop TB Partnership.

Their 2020 milestone sought a 35 per cent reduction in tuberculosis deaths and a 20 per cent decline in cases. Only six countries met this.  Currently, investment and funding in tuberculosis control in Africa remains low.