Children and Adolescents

mWRDs are not currently recommended for screening for TB disease in children and young adolescents aged under 15 years, but they should be used to diagnose TB in children who screen positive using a symptom screen or CXR (see Chapter 4).

In addition to planning and budgeting, NTPs should consider the following key implementation steps in contact investigation:

Contact investigation to identify children, adolescents and other household members with TB disease and to identify those who will benefit from TPT should be a standard component of all national TB programmes. Contact investigation is good public health practice and essential to address and manage several infectious diseases such as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Household contacts of people with PTB are a well-recognized group at risk for TB infection and TB disease, including prevalent TB detected at the time of initial contact investigation and incident TB that occurs within the subsequent 2–5 years (15). WHO recommends that household contacts and other close contacts of people with PTB should be systematically screened for TB disease (14). Contact investigation can be implemented at the health facility, in the community or through a combination of these approaches.

Unless otherwise specified, the terms defined here apply as used in this document. They may have different meanings in other contexts.

Active (tuberculosis) case-finding: Provider-initiated screening and testing in communities by mobile teams, often using mobile X-ray and rapid molecular tests. The term is sometimes used synonymously with "systematic screening".

The production and writing of the WHO consolidated guidelines on tuberculosis. Module 5: management of tuberculosis in children and adolescents, 2022 was coordinated by Sabine Verkuijl, Annemieke Brands, Kerri Viney and Tiziana Masini, under the guidance of Farai Mavhunga, head of the TB Vulnerable Populations, Communities and Comorbidities unit and the overall direction of Tereza Kasaeva, Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis (TB) Programme.