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TB in Children

The trend in the notification of paediatric TB cases has shown a significant increase, rising from 7.4% in 2015 to 15.8% in 2023, which is just above the national target of 15%. However, it is notable that the majority of paediatric TB cases, 98% were clinically diagnosed rather than bacteriologically confirmed TB cases. Figure...shows a national trend of proportion of pediatric TB cases notified among new and relapsed TB cases from 2015 to 2023.The trend in the notification of paediatric TB cases has shown a significant increase, rising from 7.4% in 2015 to 15.8% in 2023, which is just above the national target of 15%. However, it is notable that the majority of paediatric TB cases, 98% were clinically diagnosed rather than bacteriologically confirmed TB cases. Figure...shows a national trend of proportion of pediatric TB cases notified among new and relapsed TB cases from 2015 to 2023.

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Figure 19: Trend of proportion of Pediatric TB Cases Notified for year 2023(Source DHIS2-ETL)

National trend of ratio of TB cases age groups of 0-4:5-14

The figure 20 below shows the ratio of age 0-4:5-14 group in 2023 was 1.3 which is below the national target of 1.5. This is due to difficulties in obtaining sputum sample from children; to improve this, the Ministry has introduced the use of stool in testing TB for children

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Figure 20: Ratio of TB cases aged 0-4:5-14 (new and relapse, all forms) for year 2023

Proportion of Pediatric TB cases notified among new and relapsed TB patients by  region in 2023

In Figure 21, twenty out of thirty-three regions achieved the national target for pediatric TB notification, which is set at 15 cases. The top five regions exceeding this target were Katavi, Simiyu, Kigoma, Shinyanga, and Rukwa. Conversely, the regions with the lowest performance were Ilala II, Mbeya, Mwanza, Kigamboni, and Lindi.

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Figure 21: Proportion of Paediatric TB Cases Notified by regions

The distribution of children under the age of 15 notified according to forms of TB shows that clinically diagnosed pulmonary TB cases were 12, 804 (87%), forming a larger part, followed by pulmonary TB cases that were 10, 802 (74.0%), while bacteriologically confirmed TB cases were 1855 (13%).The proportion of Bacterilogically confirmed TB cases for children under 15 years of age has shown an increase by 67% since the introduction of stool test using Genexpert as shown in the figure 21.

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Figure 15 :Trend of Bacteriologically Confirmed TB cases, children <15 years of age

Table 1: Childhood TB treatment outcome of cases notified 2022

Treatment outcomes

     Number

      %

Paediatric Notified 2022

     16,907

 

Cured

       1,470

     8.7%

Treatment completed

     15,059

     89.1%

Treatment success

     16,529

     97.8%

Failed treatment

          10

     0.1%

Died

         192

     1.1%

Lost to follow up

         122

     0.7%

Not evaluated

           54

     0.3%