Controlling tuberculosis in children is still not encouraging

Bangladesh has come a long way in fighting the lethal disease tuberculosis. But this bacterial infection of the lungs still remains a major health concern as diagnosis and treating patients with the disease is limited. This is particularly true for children as parents in Bangladesh are generally not aware of the reality that their children can be infected with the disease that can be both prevented and cured.
On the occasion of the World Tuberculosis Day yesterday, the World Health Organisation revealed that worldwide 11 per cent of all detected tuberculosis patients are children, but for Bangladesh, the figure is only 4.2 per cent. Does that mean that prevalence of the disease among children in Bangladesh is less? Not at all. Experts in the field suggest that the low figure of tuberculosis in children is due to lack of diagnosis and reporting in the country.
In Bangladesh, over 20,000 children with tuberculosis still remain undiagnosed and untreated. According to statistics of the year 2020, a total of 33,000 children under 15 years of age fell ill with tuberculosis and around 5,500 children died. But the lives of these children could be saved through diagnosis and treatment at the right time which is however hamstrung by poor budget allocation for the health sector as well as corruption on the one hand and lack of awareness about the disease among people on the other hand.  
It is laudable that the government has made tuberculosis treatment and medication free and this step has a huge bearing on the reduction of fatalities from the disease by half over the decade, but health experts are of the opinion that tuberculosis remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality for children. In fact, the number of children suffering from tuberculosis is increasing. It is revealed that 100-150 tuberculosis patients are diagnosed in the Asthma and Tuberculosis Centre in the capital each year.
To save lives from tuberculosis, it is vitally necessary to detect the disease early, otherwise the patient can later develop pneumonia, lose weight and suffer from malnutrition. When children develop central nervous system tuberculosis (CNS-TB) or brain tuberculosis, there is little chance that they will survive.