Child TB Diagnosis in India to Get More Effective

10-20% of all child TB cases occur in India, of which only a meager 7% are diagnosed. Reasons being:
- Difficulty to produce sputum (necessary for confirming the bacteria) by children less than 5yrs
- Ignorance of the latest techniques available for extracting the sputum,
- Doctors not being sufficiently trained to suspect and diagnose the disease on time, and manage the disease
Indian Academy of Paediatrics (IAP), Child TB Division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and RNTC are coming together to train the doctors and disseminate information on the latest guidelines for diagnosis and management of paediatric TB.
In the first stage set to begin by May end, 50 paediatricians from across India will be intensively trained for 2 days, and by July end they would in turn train other paediatricians for a day. This is to continue every year. Medical officers and family practitioners will be trained on how to accurately suspect the cases and timely refer it for further investigations.
The next step will be to target health workers and community workers.
One method recommended by WHO and approved by RNTC to effectively diagnose child TB is Contact tracing of children below 5yrs in households where an adult has been recently diagnosed with active pulmonary TB.

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