Tuberculosis: Child killer

TUBERCULOSIS kills 64,000 children each year.  

TB preys on the most vulnerable young people – the orphaned, the malnourished, even those living with HIV. It causes an almost unimaginable burden to victims and their families and what makes this situation more abhorrent, TB is entirely preventable and curable.

This week international global health advocacy partnership, ACTION, of which RESULTS Australia is a part, released its Children and TB report, Children & TB:From Neglect to Action, which highlights the lack of awareness that remains around childhood TB.

Alarmingly, children are still misdiagnosed, unaccounted for, and lack access to appropriate lifesaving drugs.

The report makes a number of recommendations to countries that have donated funds to child survival initiatives and for high burden countries affected by TB to do more to stem the scourge of TB.

ACTION believes more funding for programs that address childhood TB should be made available to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria.

ACTION also recommends that countries that are affected by TB should improve their National TB programs by appropriately collecting and reporting on childhood TB data.

More importantly, they also suggest that Governments should increase funding for their own TB programs, including training and supporting health workers.

“This report goes a long way in identifying the problems that we have in trying to combat tuberculosis,” RESULTS Chief Executive Officer Maree Nutt said.

“The solutions are right there in black and white. What’s required from us is the public and poltical will to act on these recommendations,” Ms Nutt continued.

The report also notes that the lack of awareness of the child-killing disease by developed countries remains a persistent and significant barrier from defeating it.  "200 children are dying of TB every day. Most people do not know this," Archbishop Desmond Tutu said.
 
RESULTS is committed in increasing the awareness of this deadly disease.

"Whether you live in the developed or developing world, TB can end a child’s life so unexpectedly wherever you may live,” Ms Nutt added.

“John F. Kennedy once said that children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future. 

“If tuberculosis continues to kill young people, then our future looks bleak,”Ms Nutt said.