Ensure no child suffers from TB through EARLY detection, RIGHT diagnosis, and RIGHT treatment

Early diagnosis and access to appropriate tuberculosis (TB) treatment leads to successful treatment outcomes. However, TB continues to be the deadliest infectious disease in the world impacting at least 10.8 million people in 2023. In the same year, World Health Organization (WHO) reported that up to 1.3 million children under 14 years are affected by TB. TB disease is a major public health problem especially among children and adolescents. KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation kicked off 2025 working on the project “Ensure no child suffers from TB through EARLY detection, RIGHT diagnosis, and RIGHT treatment”.

More than half of the children and young adolescents are either not diagnosed or not reported to the National TB Programs (NTPs). This project ignites from the need to improve access to TB service delivery for children and adolescents. It is aimed at ensuring that children are included in every aspect of the TB care cascade and social support.

The project supports NTPs and partners to conduct a self-assessment to identify gaps, challenges, and assess policies’ integration and capacity to deliver effective TB service for children and adolescents in 5 countries (Ethiopia, Chad, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania and The Gambia), using KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation’s benchmarking and planning tool for TB in children and adolescents. This intervention will help us understand the country’s status on TB service delivery for children and adolescents, gaps, challenges and readiness to adopt WHO recommendations. NTP together with partners will design a roadmap, support plan to improve TB service delivery and uptake of WHO recommendations.

The project “Ensure no child suffers from TB through EARLY detection, RIGHT diagnosis, and RIGHT treatment” is funded by Stichting voor Mondiale Tuberculose Bestrijding (SMT) and will be supported by KNCV Ethiopia (national entity), KNCV Kyrgyzstan (national entity), KNCV Tanzania (branch office) in collaboration with the National TB Programs (NTPs) in respective countries, NTP in Chad and NTP in The Gambia; WHO Secretariat on TB in children and adolescents and the Children and Adolescent TB Working Group. Ensure no child suffers from TB through EARLY detection, RIGHT diagnosis, and RIGHT treatment to improve the quality of life for children and adolescent by bringing together national and international partners supporting TB service delivery and children’s social welfare to harmonize approaches and leverage resources to reach country targets and together, ensure children have the best quality of life.