Tuberculosis (TB) is a deadly infectious disease that is transmitted through the air from one person to another just like the common cold or COVID-19. Despite being preventable, treatable, and curable, TB remains one of the most serious infectious diseases affecting children.
An estimated 1.2 million cases of TB and more than 210,000 deaths in children under 15 years of age were recorded around the world in 2021, this translates to close to 600 deaths per day. TB is difficult to diagnose and treat in children because often they do not exhibit any of the typical TB symptoms, like adults. Children can also contract TB which is resistant to the medicine that cures TB. This is known as drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB).
The Stop TB Partnership together with the Dopasi Foundation visited a pediatrics clinic in Pakistan to highlight the incredible efforts being made to combat this deadly infectious disease.
In the VIDEO we meet a father of a TB-affected child and learn about her diagnosis, treatment, how the entire family coped, their struggles, hopes and ultimately her road towards a full recovery. In 2021, 81,000 children developed TB in Pakistan and 1.1 million children around the world. In Pakistan, cases of childhood TB often go unreported.
Pakistan benefits from Stop TB's Global Drug Facility Pediatric Drug-Resistant TB initiative. The Pediatric Drug-Resistant TB initiative is a programme that aims to combat the disease by increasing access to child-friendly drug-resistant (TB-DR) TB treatments to children who need them, wherever they are in the world. With only a few short months to go until the UN High-Level Meeting (HLM) on TB to be held in September, it is imperative that we remind and urge the international community to step up action, increase efforts and commit necessary resources to end this disease. No child should ever have to lose their life to a preventable, treatable, curable disease. Yes, We can End TB!