Paediatric tuberculosis transmission outside the household: challenging historical paradigms to inform future public health strategies.

ABSTRACT: Tuberculosis is a major cause of death and disability among children globally, yet children have been neglected in global tuberculosis control efforts. Historically, tuberculosis in children has been thought of as a family disease, and because of this, household contact tracing of children after identification of an adult tuberculosis case has been emphasised as the principal public health intervention. However, the population-level effect of household contact tracing is predicated on the assumption that most paediatric tuberculosis infections are acquired within the household. In this Personal View, we focus on accumulating scientific evidence indicating that the majority of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission to children in high-burden settings occurs in the community, outside of hou

SUBMITTER: Martinez L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7323920 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature