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Approximately 1.8 million young people develop TB every year, new study suggests

A total of 1.8 million young people 10-24 years of age are estimated to develop tuberculosis (TB) every year, with young adults aged 20-24 years at the greatest risk of developing infectious TB, a new study has revealed.

A total of 1.8 million young people 10-24 years of age are estimated to develop tuberculosis (TB) every year, with young adults aged 20-24 years at the greatest risk of developing infectious TB, a new study has revealed.

The research, published in the European Respiratory Journal, provides the first ever global estimate of TB rates among people in this age bracket. Previous estimates categorised those aged up to 14 years as children and anyone aged 15 years and over as adults, resulting in a gap in understanding of the scale of TB burden among young people.

The researchers say this group are known to be at a high risk of developing the disease, and that becoming ill with TB can hinder their ability to study, find work or care for their families. Attempts to tackle TB in young people have been limited, since the scale of the problem was previously unknown.

The research was led by Kathryn Snow from the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She said: €œWe know from previous studies that TB risk gets higher during adolescence and that young people have unique needs during treatment for TB, but until now there have been no estimates of the total number of adolescents who develop TB.

€œAdolescence is a critical period in our lives €“ many young people with TB are finishing high school, beginning their careers and starting families. The disruption caused by TB can have serious long-term impacts, but the scale of TB burden among this group has been generally unrecognised€.

To estimate the global incidence of TB among young people as one group, Snow and her team separated existing data out in to three age bands: 10-14 years, 15-19 years and 20-24 years.

The data came from the World Health Organization (WHO) Global TB database for 2012 and from more detailed TB surveillance statistics from Brazil, Indonesia, South Africa, Romania and Estonia. These countries provided a representative global spread of TB epidemics of different types and severity.

The researchers found that an estimated 1.05 million 20-24 year olds, 535,000 15-19 year olds, and 192,000 10-14 year olds developed active TB in 2012, totalling 1.8 million new TB cases among all young people.

Researchers point out that this is still an estimate and the real figure for the number of new TB infections across all 10-24 year olds could be as high as three million globally.

South Asia had the highest number of new cases at 721,000 across all 10-24 year olds, followed by Sub-Saharan Africa with 534,000 new cases of TB in this age group in 2012.

Snow said: €œWe think that TB risk rises in adolescence due to a mix of biological and social factors. Young adults aged 20 to 24 years are more likely to develop infectious TB than younger adolescents. This means young adults are more likely to come in to contact with infectious TB through contact with friends and classmates of the same age, while young adolescents have less contact with young adults.

€œMany countries in South Asia and Africa have high rates of TB overall, as well as large populations of young people, which may explain why these regions have the highest burden of TB in young people.€

She added: €œNow that we have identified the scale of the problem, our next step is to try to understand the potential for targeting preventative measures specifically at young people in countries with intense TB epidemics.

€œHealth programmes should consider the special needs of young people with TB, which include continuing their education, keeping their jobs, and meeting their family responsibilities. These needs can be met by allowing young people to attend appointments at flexible times, and by protecting young people’s privacy so that they are not discriminated against at school or at work.€

The researchers acknowledge that a lack of high-quality data from some countries may affect the quality of the estimates, and say that as better data becomes available they hope to revise these estimates with greater certainty.

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