About this Research Topic
Childhood tuberculosis (TB) represents an important burden of disease worldwide. It is estimated that 210.000 children die each year from TB. Alarmingly, it is estimated that only 35% of children with active TB infection are accurately diagnosed and treated, this proportion being much higher in most low resource countries. While the absence of effective vaccine is a major obstacle for TB prevention, the complexity of the clinical and microbiological diagnosis of TB among children further contributes to the high mortality of this curable disease. Today, the main strategy for preventing TB among children is to perform household contact investigation complemented by the challenging diagnosis and treatment of latent TB. It is has become highly urgent to develop and implement innovative and effective strategies to prevent, diagnose and treat TB among children. This Research Topic of Frontiers in Pediatric Infectious Diseases will focus on recent advances in the field of epidemiology (real-time surveillance, artificial intelligence for predicting hotspots of transmission, …), TB in special hosts (immunocompromised patients, vulnerable population such as migrants etc..), diagnosis (biomarkers, next-generation sequencing, computer-assisted diagnosis of X-rays), and treatment (new molecules, new treatment-delivery approaches).
Keywords: Tuberculosis, children, childhood, diagnosis, treatment, prevention
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