Governments urged to prioritise children in TB response

Government and international donors have been urged to enhance their efforts in fighting tuberculosis (TB) among children.

In a statement issued during celebrations to mark 2026 World TB Day, Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) said children remain the most affected and vulnerable group.

“No child should suffer or die from a disease that is both preventable and treatable,” Médecins Sans Frontières TB platform lead Cathy Hewison said.

Hewison highlighted that in an already underfunded TB response, children have been pushed further to the back of the line as services are disrupted by aid cuts, conflict or displacement.

“The tools to diagnose and treat children with TB exist, even if imperfect, yet only half of the children who have TB are diagnosed or treated. For a truly global TB response, children cannot remain an afterthought and must be prioritised now,” she added.

According to World Health Organization (WHO)’s 2025 Global TB Report, 1.2 million children and young adolescents aged less than 15 years old fell ill with TB in 2024.

The report also revealed that a staggering 43 per cent of children under 15 years old missed TB diagnosis and could not access treatment in 2024*, a statistic that has not improved from previous years.

The situation is worse for children with TB below 5 years old, with only half of them accessing TB diagnosis and care.

The volatile combination of interruptions in TB services as a result of recent cuts in international financing of TB programmes and a record number of displaced people in TB high-burden countries is expected to result in even more children remaining undiagnosed and untreated.

Despite this grim reality, we can get closer to reaching the children who are missing out on TB diagnosis and treatment by effectively implementing the WHO guidelines.

“Every missed sign and every delayed decision push children with TB closer to severe disease and death. Greater political will and investments from governments and international donors are urgently needed to ensure lifesaving tools for preventing, diagnosing, and treating TB are available to all children,” MSF said.

MSF teams frequently see children with TB whose treatment is delayed due to no or inappropriate diagnosis approaches or because physicians simply don’t think of TB.

“Implementation of the WHO algorithms in routine care in MSF-supported health facilities is showing a significant increase in the number of children diagnosed with TB.”

TB is a contagious, airborne bacterial infection caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, usually affecting the lungs but capable of attacking other organs.

Symptoms include a chronic cough (often with blood), fever, night sweats, and weight loss. TB is treated with a standard course of multiple antibiotics for at least six to nine months.