The Difficulties of Childhood Tuberculosis Diagnosis

The children just as adults are exposed to contract and develop the multi-resistant forms of tuberculosis (TB), constituting a major issue for the disease control. The children <5 years of age are the most exposed to present the most serious and more often deadly forms of the illness. Further, in many developing countries, the lack of pediatric forms of the TB drugs makes it difficult to control the problem. The TB diagnosis among the children is based on a set of arguments: the presence of a tuberculous person excreting bacillus, exposition and receptivity conditions of the child (the level of his immunity, the level of undernutrition, and associated pathologies). The diagnosis is also based on the research of the symptoms and other signs suggestive of TB: tuberculin skin test, thoracic radiography, and interferon-gamma test. The aim of this study is to describe and analyze the features and difficulties of the biological diagnosis of TB among the children and to find a strategy for the improvement of the results.