Update on the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis

Abstract

According to WHO estimates, more than 1 million patients aged less than 15 years develop tuberculosis (TB) each year worldwide. In some regions, up to 25% of new TB cases are caused by drug-resistant strains. Although Spain is considered a low-incidence country, several hundred children and adolescents develop TB each year. The importance of paediatric TB has been minimized for years due to the lack of microbiological confirmation in many patients and because these patients are not usually contagious. Nevertheless, in the past 15 years there have been major improvements in the epidemiological reporting of TB in children and adolescents, new immunodiagnostic tests have been developed, molecular methods that allow rapid microbiological diagnosis and detection of variants associated with drug resistance have become available, novel second-line antituberculosis drugs have been discovered, including for paediatric use, and the results of clinical trials have validated shorter courses of treatment for some patients. This document, developed by a group of experts from the Sociedad Española de Infectología Pediátrica and the Sociedad Española de Neumología Pediátrica, updates and complements the previous guidelines for the diagnostic and therapeutic management of children with TB in Spain based on the newly available scientific evidence.