Children increasingly susceptible to TB: experts

It is not only that approximately 250,000 persons develop TB each year in Pakistan with 75 percent of them belonging to the most economically productive age group of 15-54 years but ironically children below 15 are also registered to be increasingly inflicted with the ailment. Experts including Dr Aisha Mehnaz, Pediatrics Department, Civil Hospital - Karachi, Dr Amanullah Ansari, National TB Control Programme Sindh, Dr Nisar Ahmed Rao.
Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases, Dr Zafaryab Hussain, K.V.Site Hospital, Dr M. Ashraf Sadique, Director, Ojha Institute of Chest Diseases here on Thursday called for a comprehensive approach for proper and timely diagnosis, efficient treatment and absolute compliance to prevent relapse and eruption of multi drug resistance among local patients.
Dr Ayesha Mehnaz addressing the session which was part of Continuing Medical Education Programme on Tuberculosis at Dow University of Health Sciences, also coincided with World TB Day, mentioned that children comprise 13 percent of all TB cases.
This, she said is in a situation where proper diagnosis of child patients suffering from TB is difficult as cough in children is usually non productive and obtaining sputum is difficult.
"TB often goes unnoticed as symptoms are mild and most diagnostic tests are negative," she said.
Even Pulmonary TB which otherwise is the commonest type of TB in Pakistan is difficult to be diagnosed in children, she further said mentioning that recurrent cough either due to viral or allergic or metabolic etiologies are again commonly prevalent.
The paediatrician discussing "Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of TB in Children observed that high index of suspicion is required to diagnose TB in children and in the given scenario majority of the child patients are empirically treated for TB."
With regard to problems in the diagnosis of TB in children, she said that while children acquire the infection from an adult but since the disease is still considered a taboo hence it is difficult to contact them.
Dr Ayesha Mehnaz submitted that scoring chart can be a cost effective tool in a resource constraint country like ours to improve case detection rate coupled with provision for a clear guideline to diagnose and manage TB in children.
With regard to routes of transmission, she said it includes inhalation route by coming in close contact with an adult sufferer, through secretions, through ingestion of contaminated food or milk and even through broken skin.
Vulnerability of kids is further aggravated due to their being malnourished, the paediatrician reminded mentioning that available reports reveal above 50 percent of local children to be malnourished.