Integrating paediatric TB programme with programmes like Maternal and Child Health, could help find lot many kids with undiagnosed TB. So healthcare facilities where children go for vaccinations, deworming and for sickness like pneumonia, malnutrition, provide a good and cost saving opportunity for screening them for TB.
Dr John Ditekemena of Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation spoke about the challenge of addressing the wide policy-practice gap and the need to scale up of new tools - GeneXpert and new paediatric FDCs. He advocated for a community health approach to bring health information and basic services to the people. Community has to be involved for TB management by reinforcing capacities of community members to handle TB related issues in children like active case finding, index case finding and contact tracing.
Time to act is now
It is our moral obligation to protect our children. No child should get TB and no child should die of it. What we need is a strategy and not empty talks. Merely signing on the dotted line is just not enough. There has to be the political will to transform words into action.
Shobha Shukla, CNS (Citizen News Service)
(Shobha Shukla is the Managing Editor of CNS (Citizen News Service) who is leading CNS onsite Correspondents Team at XXI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) and International TB Conference (TB 2016) in Durban, South Africa, with kind support from Lilly MDR TB Partnership. Follow her on Twitter: @shobha1shukla)
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