Pediatric TB Fact Sheet

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Tuberculosis (TB) in children and adolescents

• In 2024, 1.2 million children aged 0-14 years old fell ill with TB around the world.

• Among children aged 0-14 years with TB, 42% go undiagnosed, untreated or unreported. 1

The burden of child and adolescent TB annually:

Challenges in addressing child and adolescent TB

Difficulties in diagnosis

TB in children is difficult to diagnose with traditional diagnostic tools, but consistent use of child friendly specimens and increasing access to chest x-rays can improve case finding among children.

TB preventive treatment remains low

Provision of TB preventative treatment (TPT) to young children in contact with someone with TB remains low, with less than half of those eligible receiving TPT every year. However, TPT for all household contacts, including older children, adolescents as well as adults, has risen from 5% in 2019 to 25% in 2025. 2

HIV-associated TB

In 2023, an estimated 33% of deaths among children living with HIV were due to TB.2

CDC's role in the fight against child and adolescent TB

Diagnose

Working with Ministries of Health (MOHs) to promote use of child friendly approaches and diagnostics, CDC is supporting countries to test and diagnose TB in children. In Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda, CDC is working with MOHs and Baylor College of Medicine to evaluate the latest screening and diagnostic methods to determine the most effective and efficient ways to diagnose TB among children.3

Treat

By linking every child screened for TB at HIV services to diagnostic evaluation and treatment, CDC is enabling timely, lifesaving TB care. In 2024, approximately 290,000 children living with HIV were screened for TB and approximately 3,600 were started on TB treatment through CDC support.3

Prevent

CDC is supporting countries in scaling-up TPT to all eligible children, including household contacts of people with TB and children living with HIV. In 2024, CDC newly initiated nearly 34,000 children on TPT, a critical intervention to prevent development of TB in children living with HIV.

Sustain

CDC is providing leadership and technical assistance to help countries identify and address gaps that hinder childhood TB elimination.

CDC and the International Union Against TB and Lung Disease have established a Centre of Excellence, providing a global, virtual platform with twelve MOH's to provide a community of learning and practice for child and adolescent TB in countries hardest hit by the epidemic.

Responding to child and adolescent TB

1. Less invasive diagnostic methods discovered, simplifying the diagnosis of TB in children.
2. Shorter treatment regimens for drug-susceptible TB among children are obtainable, reducing burden on children and their families can improve treatment outcomes for children.
3. Nearly all TPT and TB treatment regimens are now available in dispersible, pediatric formulations.

Despite significant progress, more work is needed to end childhood TB.

1. Slow adoption and uptake of child-friendly diagnostic tools hinders diagnosis of TB in children.
2. Shorter treatment regimens for children require capacity to differentiate severe TB disease from uncomplicated, non-severe disease, slowing uptake of access to this preferred treatment.
3. Persistent coverage gaps of TPT leave children living with HIV and household contacts of people with TB at-risk of developing TB infection.

To learn more, visit: www.cdc.gov/globalhivtb.