Target Populations

• TB infection in children younger than five years is always recently acquired (i.e., within 5 years), and recent infections have a higher likelihood of progression to disease than infection acquired less recently;
• Children have an increased risk of developing severe TB with sequela (e.g., meningitis and disseminated disease);
• Children have more years at risk for the development of TB than adults; and children tolerate treatment for LTBI better than adults.
• By keeping children healthy and allowing them to prosper and go to school, we’re helping families avoid the catastrophic cost of TB.

Over the past 40 years, an HIV diagnosis has gone from being the equivalent of a death sentence to becoming a chronic condition that we can prevent and treat. Yet, people living with HIV are now dying from TB in large numbers. People living with HIV are at high risk of latent TB, but their infection often goes unnoticed and untreated until it’s too late. TB is the leading cause of death among people living with HIV, causing one third of all HIV deaths – around 400,000.

People living with HIV are 20 to 30 times more likely to move from latent to active TB than those without HIV infection.