New findings also indicate that children who live in settings with a high burden of TB have a consistently high annual risk of developing TB infection throughout childhood. An estimated 1.2 million children develop tuberculosis disease (TB) and 200,000 kids die from TB worldwide each year, but the risk of developing TB infection and disease throughout childhood remains under-studied.
Furthermore, the majority of studies on the pediatric burden of TB are informed by data from patients in healthcare settings, rather than people in real-world, community settings. A new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH), the University of São Paulo, and the University of Cape Town sheds new light on this risk, with finding that there is a high risk of TB infection and disease in children up to 10 years old who live in areas where TB spread is common. Published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health , the study is the first birth cohort study to assess TB infection and active TB disease during children's first decade of life in high-burden settings.
The new results found that there was a consistently high rate of annual TB infection among children in the study group-;between 4-9 percent-;and that more than 10 percent of children developed TB disease by the time they were 10 years old. The study builds upon a previous analysis by some of the researchers which also found high rates of TB infection and disease in children up to five years old. These results are strikin.