Maphalle Lehlogonolo N F, Michniak-Kohn Bozena B, Ogunrombi Modupe O, Adeleke Oluwatoyin A
Division of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, Pretoria 0208, South Africa.
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, 160 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
Children (Basel). 2022 Jul 27;9(8):1120. doi: 10.3390/children9081120.
Managing pediatric tuberculosis (TB) remains a public health problem requiring urgent and long-lasting solutions as TB is one of the top ten causes of ill health and death in children as well as adolescents universally. Minors are particularly susceptible to this severe illness that can be fatal post-infection or even serve as reservoirs for future disease outbreaks. However, pediatric TB is the least prioritized in most health programs and optimal infection/disease control has been quite neglected for this specialized patient category, as most scientific and clinical research efforts focus on developing novel management strategies for adults. Moreover, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has meaningfully hindered the gains and progress achieved with TB prophylaxis, therapy, diagnosis, and global eradication goals for all affected persons of varying age bands. Thus, the opening of novel research activities and opportunities that can provide more insight and create new knowledge specifically geared towards managing TB disease in this specialized group will significantly improve their well-being and longevity.
由于结核病是全球儿童和青少年健康不良及死亡的十大原因之一，因此，应对儿童结核病仍然是一个需要紧急和长期解决方案的公共卫生问题。未成年人尤其容易感染这种严重疾病，感染后可能致命，甚至可能成为未来疾病爆发的源头。然而，在大多数卫生项目中，儿童结核病的优先级最低，针对这一特殊患者群体的最佳感染/疾病控制措施一直被忽视，因为大多数科学和临床研究工作都集中在为成年人开发新的治疗策略上。此外，持续的新冠疫情严重阻碍了在结核病预防、治疗、诊断以及所有不同年龄段受影响人群的全球根除目标方面所取得的成果和进展。因此，开展新的研究活动和创造机会，以提供更多见解并创造专门针对管理这一特殊群体结核病的新知识，将显著改善他们的健康状况并延长寿命。
