African Union, WHO urge swift action against childhood tuberculosis

The African Union and the World Health Organization (WHO) have called for immediate and comprehensive measures to end the significant toll of tuberculosis among children in Africa.

Towards political leadership to end childhood tuberculosis by 2030, they called for swift measures to accelerate recovery from the impact of COVID-19 even as countries facilitate the scale-up of child-friendly tuberculosis diagnosis, treatment and care.

WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, speaking on the sidelines of the Seventy-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lomé, Togo stated that the epidemic of tuberculosis among children in Africa has been occurring in the shadows and has until now been largely ignored.

Moeti declared: “We hope this call will galvanize action and ensure no child in Africa is lost to a disease which in many parts of the world is now history.

“Strong political leadership, accountability, financial support and global solidarity are critically needed to increase access to effective diagnostics, medications, vaccines and other tools for tuberculosis control.”

Executive Director of Stop TB Partnership, Dr Lucica Ditiu declared that one child dies of tuberculosis somewhere in the world every two minutes even though tuberculosis is curable and preventable.

He said, “Children with tuberculosis are almost never spreading the disease and are always infected by an adult, so their suffering is a metric of our failures to diagnose and treat tuberculosis in children.

“We call on all our partners to be committed, united and learn from our achievements and mistakes to ensure that an airborne disease hundreds of years old like TB is not a threat for the generations to come.”

While noting that childhood tuberculosis doubled with malnutrition poses major health challenges in the African Union Member States malnutrition was worsening the impact of tuberculosis, Commissioner for Health, Humanitarian Affairs and Social Development, African Union Commission, Minata Samate Cessouma, stated that globally,19% of all tuberculosis cases are associated with malnutrition.

According to him, “Undernourished children with tuberculosis are susceptible to developing extensive and severe complications. There is an urgent need for innovative interventions to integrate tuberculosis diagnosis into nutrition programmes to quickly identify the disease in children.”

Chip Lyons, President and Chief Executive Officer of Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), said that ensuring a meaningfully invest in the tools and technologies needed to respond to the tuberculosis pandemic will guarantees that the global health community can save the lives of thousands of people living with or at risk for tuberculosis infection.

According to him, failing to prioritize children and adolescents in the response to the tuberculosis pandemic will ultimately lead to a failure in the realization of a future free from tuberculosis.

The African region is home to 17 of the 30 countries with the highest tuberculosis burden globally and accounts for around 322 000 children and young adolescents (aged 0—15 years) or a third of tuberculosis cases among those under 15 years of age worldwide.

Of particular concern is that two-thirds of children in the region are unreported or undiagnosed for the disease, leading to an increased risk of rapid disease progression and mortality, especially in younger children. Among children under five just around a third (32%) are diagnosed – the smallest proportion globally.

Currently, investment and funding for tuberculosis control in Africa remain low, jeopardizing the efforts to meet the global target of ending the disease by 2030. The African region requires at least US$ 1.3 billion for tuberculosis prevention and treatment every year, yet countries contribute 22% of the needed budget while external funding accounts for 34%. The rest of the budget remains unfunded.