Carolyn Kavita Tauro 
First published on CNS  March 2013

According to the Global Tuberculosis Report 2012 - the first report to include an estimate on the burden of TB among children – there are over 490,000 cases and 64,000 deaths due to TB in children per year. This, in all likelihood, is an underestimate and therefore, just a tip of the iceberg. Also, the number of these deaths includes only those of HIV negative children, as HIV positive children would be classified under HIV deaths. In India, the number of notified new TB cases in 2011 was about 1.5 million (15 lakhs) with 150,000 of them being children. About 70%-80% of the children suffering from TB have it in their lungs (pulmonary TB) while the rest may be affected with extra pulmonary TB in in other parts of their body. Infants and young children often suffer from the TB associated with highest mortality, such as TB meningitis, while adolescents are more at a risk of developing the adult-type disease.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, India
Tuberculosis (TB) and Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) – can we continue to tackle these separately? According to the Global TB Report (2012), in 2011, out of 8.7 million people who developed TB worldwide 1.1 million (13%) were HIV positive. An approximate of 0.4 million HIV-associated TB deaths took place in 2011 and TB is the most common opportunistic infection among people living with HIV (PLWH).  HIV increases chances that latent TB infection can become active TB disease and also increases the risk of death due to this.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro, India 
(First published in Mangalorean News, India on 4th October 2013) 
http://www.citizen-news.org/2013/10/the-roadmap-to-tb-free-future-for.html
On the morning of 1st October, 2013, the very first plan of its kind was launched toward the goal of zero deaths in childhood TB. The launch was jointly brought about by the World Health Organization (WHO),International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), Stop TB Partnership, UNICEF and other partners, bringing out of the shadows this disease in children, which has been neglected so far.

Carolyn Kavita Tauro 
First published on CNS
According to the WHO In 2011, an estimated 8.7 million people fell ill with tuberculosis and 1.4 million people died from it, including 0.5 million women, making TB one of the top three causes of death for women aged 15 to 44 worldwide. “Although the ratio of males to females affected by TB in the pre-puberty and childhood ages is almost equal, this changes significantly in adulthood, and we find almost 4 men per 1 woman affected with TB,” according to Dr Sarabjit Chadha, Project Director at the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), India. Dr Chadha attributes this to “access related issues considering that women in the rural settings do not have a similar health seeking behavior as men. Also, issues of poverty and malnutrition are more relevant in case of women because of gender inequality.”
http://www.citizen-news.org/2013/08/two-diseases-one-patient.html