The ACTION Partnership has released a new brief on children and tuberculosis (TB) that includes recommendations for the international community and affected countries on how to combat the epidemic.
According to the World Health Organization, 64 000 children die from TB every year and around half a million become sick with the disease. However, until very recently, childhood TB has not been a priority in public health and has remained essentially a hidden pandemic.
"The global TB epidemic is a disgrace. If we want to end TB as a killer of children, we need to do more than just talk, we must transform attention to this deadly disease into action," said Kolleen Bouchane, ACTION Director.
The report calls on donor governments to address TB as part of child survival initiatives and to invest additional resources to ensure the development of child-friendly diagnostics, drugs, and vaccines.
Countries affected by TB must also do more, the ACTION partners say. National TB programmes must collect and report data on childhood TB and train health workers to address childhood TB, among other activities.
Read the brief and full list of recommendations at www.action.org