In July 2017, the Article “Tuberculosis treatment for children: An update” has been published on-line in “Anales de Pediatría” Journal.
The publication reports the updated international guidelines for the management of paediatric Tuberculosis (TB) in Spain, reviewed by a group of paediatric TB experts, among which some researchers of the TEDDY Network, such as Maria José Mellado Peña and Roi Piñeiro Pérez.
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most serious public-health problem with around 10 million new cases and 1,5 million deaths estimated to occur each year. Pediatric tuberculosis has been a neglected epidemic, due to the difficulties in assessing its global impact, reduced incidence and lower infectivity compared to adults. In 2015, the WHO reported 1 million cases of paediatric TB and 169,000 deaths. Spain is the Western European country with the highest number of paediatric cases, with an incidence of 4.3/100,000 inhabitants in 2014. The prevalence of paediatric drug resistant TB in Spain is over 4% higher than the estimated incidence in adult population, representing mayor difficulties for therapeutic intervention. The difficulties in diagnosis and the lack of optimal paediatric drug formulations are the major challenges for controlling the childhood’s tuberculosis epidemic.
The article outlines the efforts of a group of national paediatric TB experts, guided by Maria José Mellado Peña, Associated Professor of the Autonomous University of Madrid and TEDDY Network researcher, who have reviewed the international guidelines and the most recent evidences for the management of paediatric TB. They have established new recommendations for the managing of paediatric TB contacts, latent infection and active TB disease, especially focused in drug resistant cases. This document replaces the former national guidelines from the Spanish Society for pediatric infectious diseases, although the prior recommendations on the diagnosis remain valid.
The abstract of publication is available at this link.