Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children
Children suffer a huge burden of disease in tuberculosis (TB) endemic countries. This disease burden was largely invisible when TB control programmes focused exclusively on adults with sputum smear-positive disease. High-level advocacy and better data have improved visibility, but the establishment...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2017-03-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Infectious Diseases |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971216316587 |
| _version_ | 1819267785984835584 |
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| author | Ben J. Marais |
| author_facet | Ben J. Marais |
| author_sort | Ben J. Marais |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Children suffer a huge burden of disease in tuberculosis (TB) endemic countries. This disease burden was largely invisible when TB control programmes focused exclusively on adults with sputum smear-positive disease. High-level advocacy and better data have improved visibility, but the establishment of functional paediatric TB programmes remains challenging. The key issues that limit children's access to TB preventive therapy and treatment in endemic areas are briefly discussed. Barriers to preventive therapy include (1) the perceived inability to rule out active disease, (2) fear of creating drug resistance, (3) non-implementation of existing guidelines in the absence of adequate monitoring, and (4) poor adherence with long preventive therapy courses. Barriers to TB treatment include (1) perceived diagnostic difficulties, (2) non-availability of chest radiography, (3) young children presenting to unprepared maternal and child health (MCH) services, and (4) the absence of child-friendly formulations. With drug-resistant disease there is currently no guidance on the use of preventive therapy and treatment is usually restricted to cases with bacteriologically confirmed disease, which excludes most young children from care, even if their likely source case has documented drug-resistant TB. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-23T21:22:42Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-64a19b7879184aebadfd72cd6fa370e9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1201-9712 1878-3511 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-23T21:22:42Z |
| publishDate | 2017-03-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Infectious Diseases |
| spelling | doaj.art-64a19b7879184aebadfd72cd6fa370e92022-12-21T17:30:42ZengElsevierInternational Journal of Infectious Diseases1201-97121878-35112017-03-0156C12212510.1016/j.ijid.2016.12.015Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for childrenBen J. MaraisChildren suffer a huge burden of disease in tuberculosis (TB) endemic countries. This disease burden was largely invisible when TB control programmes focused exclusively on adults with sputum smear-positive disease. High-level advocacy and better data have improved visibility, but the establishment of functional paediatric TB programmes remains challenging. The key issues that limit children's access to TB preventive therapy and treatment in endemic areas are briefly discussed. Barriers to preventive therapy include (1) the perceived inability to rule out active disease, (2) fear of creating drug resistance, (3) non-implementation of existing guidelines in the absence of adequate monitoring, and (4) poor adherence with long preventive therapy courses. Barriers to TB treatment include (1) perceived diagnostic difficulties, (2) non-availability of chest radiography, (3) young children presenting to unprepared maternal and child health (MCH) services, and (4) the absence of child-friendly formulations. With drug-resistant disease there is currently no guidance on the use of preventive therapy and treatment is usually restricted to cases with bacteriologically confirmed disease, which excludes most young children from care, even if their likely source case has documented drug-resistant TB.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971216316587TuberculosisChildrenDrug-resistant |
| spellingShingle | Ben J. Marais Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children International Journal of Infectious Diseases Tuberculosis Children Drug-resistant |
| title | Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children |
| title_full | Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children |
| title_fullStr | Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children |
| title_short | Improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children |
| title_sort | improving access to tuberculosis preventive therapy and treatment for children |
| topic | Tuberculosis Children Drug-resistant |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971216316587 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT benjmarais improvingaccesstotuberculosispreventivetherapyandtreatmentforchildren |