Childhood tuberculosis in sub-Saharan Africa: A call to action

Tuberculosis (TB) has remained a source of concern for the international community for several decades. Multi-drug-resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB have become impending emergencies. All these TB control challenges are magnified by HIV/TB co-morbidity. Although, there are recorded successes in the overall control of TB in adults, the level of success in children is uncertain. The high burden of TB in children is well recognised, but it is not well quantified in many endemic areas due to problems with definitive diagnosis. Childhood TB deserves special attention, because from the perspective of public health, any paediatric TB case is a sentinel event. It indicates recent infection from an adult who has the infection, and who could infect an average of 15 others in a year. It also indicates a possible severe disease and a possible future adult case. To the extent, childhood TB is prevalent, to that extent has TB control failed in the community where the childhood case came from. The objective of this review is to examine all aspects of childhood TB with a view to highlighting the management challenges and making recommendations.