Smear Microscopy Misses More Children Than Adults.

One million children aged below 15 years are annually diseased with tuberculosis worldwide.
The new estimates are twice the number of children having tuberculosis in 2010 and thrice more than who were actually diagnosed. The study estimated 32,000 children diseased with multidrug-resistant (MDR-TB)— in 2010.
Accordingly the smear microscopy misses more children than adults.
India with a huge population below 15 years, there is a possibility of more children being missed out.
In India the number of new TB cases are around 2.3 million a year, which could be underestimated.
Reliable estimates of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant TB are essential, prioritising government’s efforts to diagnose and treat more children with TB.
The study used the data of 97 studies accounting for 8,000 children who had undergone drug-susceptibility testing. The data primarily used to establish the relationship between the naive adults and children with MDR-TB treatment without estimating the total number of those with TB.
The study found the risk of MDR-TB was nearly identical in both children and adults who were never treated before.

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