Our Work › Pediatric Tuberculosis (TB)

Ending TB Through Expertise and Action

Tuberculosis (TB) is a preventable and curable disease. But it’s the deadliest infectious disease globally and every year, far too many children lose their lives to it. Children and adolescents suffer uniquely: their symptoms are harder to detect, their access to diagnosis and treatment is limited, and the stakes are high.

At EGPAF, our work to end pediatric HIV naturally extends to TB. By integrating TB prevention, testing, and treatment into our HIV programs, we ensure that children get the care they need. No child should have to fight one life-threatening disease while at risk for another. Together, we can protect children, support families, and move closer to a generation free from both HIV and TB.

Get the Facts

In 2023, 1.25 million children aged 0-14 years old fell ill with TB around the world.
Globally, an estimated 52% of children under 5 with TB go undiagnosed, untreated or unreported.
An estimated 33% of deaths among children living with HIV are due to TB.

EGPAF’s Strategy: Prioritize Children & Adolescents in Every TB Response

EGPAF has experience embedding TB prevention, testing, and treatment into HIV service delivery (via PEPFAR support), because the overlap is too large to ignore. Our goals:

Drive innovations that detect disease faster, treat it more effectively, and broaden access to preventive care for kids and teens.
Use lessons from projects like CaP-TB (Unitaid) and our participation in the SMART4TB Consortium to scale what works.

Key Areas of Focus

Finding the Missing Cases

Children under 5 are routinely underdiagnosed. Existing tools often require invasive sampling or miss subtle signs of TB. EGPAF scales up child-friendly screening and diagnostics in clinics and communities to close the detection gap.

Preventive Treatment (TPT) Expansion

New, shorter regimens are available — but uptake is still far below what’s needed. Ensuring all eligible children in TB-affected households receive TPT (with pediatric formulations) is essential to stop disease before it starts.

Child-Friendly Treatment Regimens

When treatment is available but hard to use (bitter medicines, complicated dosage, long courses), outcomes suffer. EGPAF advocates for shorter, easier, child-suitable treatment regimens, both for drug-susceptible and drug-resistant TB.

Models of Care Designed for Children and Families

Children need services that are accessible, integrated into routine health care, and delivered where they are: at primary health centers, in community settings. Integrating TB care into maternal, child, and adolescent health services helps catch disease earlier, reduce severe illness, and improve survival.

Advocating for Investment in the TB Response

Significant increases in both international and domestic resources are needed to sufficiently scale up childhood TB services and end the global TB epidemic. By 2027, $22 billion is needed annually for TB prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care across all populations.

What the Data Tells Us: The Urgent Gaps

Of the children who died from TB in 2023, nearly all had no access to treatment
Drug-resistant TB in children remains grossly under-reported and under-treated.
Preventive treatment among young children (contacts under age 5) remains too low — just around one-third or less are reached.

The Way Forward & EGPAF’s Promise

With better tools, stronger commitment, and smart investments, we can dramatically reduce deaths, prevent illness, and ensure every child has the chance to grow up healthy. EGPAF stands with children, families, health workers, and communities. We will not rest until pediatric TB is a disease of the past.

Keep Reading

EGPAF is working on the frontlines to save children from TB and HIV. Read more stories about children, families, and communities benefiting from lifesaving TB care and innovations.

Story

A Family of Survivors

Published May 2024

The sun beats down on Mampe, a street vendor in Motloi, a village in the drought-hit district of Mafeteng in southern Lesotho. With three daughters to provide for, the 27-year-old single mother is out most days selling wares in the community to provide for them. Fortunately, Mampe’s bubbly girls provide her with joy at the […]

Topics:

Tuberculosis (TB)

Countries:

Lesotho

Caregiver and child meet with healthcare worker in a clinic office in Lesotho

Story

Testing, Tracing, and Treating TB in the Mountain Kingdom

Published March 2024

Libuseng Mohapi is a 25-year-old living in Berea, a northwest district in the mountain kingdom on Lesotho. Last year, she found herself in a health crisis, experiencing coughing, weight loss, night sweats, and a high fever. A visit to the Maluti Hospital provided an answer and she was diagnosed with tuberculosis or TB. Libuseng was […]

Topics:

Tuberculosis (TB)

Countries:

Lesotho

Story

The Neighbor Who Saved My Life

Published June 2022

Kadala Said, 45, lives in the heart of rural Tanzania with her husband and eight children—a big, happy family. Thanks to a vigilant neighbor, Kadala was able to identify tuberculosis (TB) in her family and take steps to recover from it. This is her story. “Just three houses from my house lives a child who […]

Topics:

Tuberculosis (TB)

Countries:

Tanzania