(Press-News.org) As young children have an increased risk of developing tuberculosis (TB) disease during the first year after infection, childhood TB serves as an indicator of ongoing transmission within a community.
In 2023, 1,689 children and young adolescents below the age of 15 years were diagnosed with tuberculosis in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries. This particular age group usually represents a relatively small proportion among the overall reported TB cases in the region, with a range from 3.4% in 2021 for example to 6.4% in 2016.
However, the data for children and young adolescents indicate a slight increase from 2022 to 2023 with a rise in the notification rate for paediatric TB from 2.0 per 100,000 population to 2.5 per 100,000 population.
In their rapid communication published in Eurosurveillance ahead of World Tuberculosis Day on 24 March 2025, Cristea et al. analysed the trends and characteristics among the reported paediatric TB cases in the EU/EEA between 2015 and 2023 to identify reasons for the recent uptick since 2021. The authors characterised each age group by comparing the proportion of paediatric TB among all reported TB cases for two periods: the mean proportion of notifications 2015 to 2020 versus yearly data for 2021 to 2023.
Highest proportion of paediatric TB among children aged 1 to 4 years
Between 2015 and 2023, in total 16,414 paediatric TB cases were notified, with an average of 1,946 cases per year (range: 1,142 in 2021 to 3,126 in 2016). These paediatric cases are part of the overall 393,104 recorded TB cases across the EU/EEA during this time.
Looking at the data for children and adolescents, the authors observed a fluctuating trend over this period: while there was a substantial decrease of 37% between 2019 to 2021, notifications gradually went up again from 2021 to 2023.
The highest proportion of paediatric TB was observed in children aged 1 to 4 years old (n = 5,394; 33%) and pulmonary TB was the predominant clinical manifestation across all for analysed age groups.
While none of the countries that provided data on childhood TB for those years showed cases across all four age groups, 17 countries reported a ≥5% increase in proportion of paediatric TB notifications in at least one age group. Five countries (Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Malta and Slovenia) noted increases in one age group, seven saw a rise in two (Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Luxembourg, Portugal, Norway and Romania) and five countries reported increases in three age groups (Czechia, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia).
No specific explanation for recent increase in paediatric TB across the EU/EEA
Infants, i.e. children below one year of age, and young children diagnosed with TB in the 28 EU/EEA countries reporting data on childhood TB, were predominantly born in the country where they were diagnosed whereas young adolescents (10–14 years of age) with TB were often born outside the reporting country. The data show that drug-resistant paediatric TB was rare and no extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis was diagnosed in children.
Cristea et al. note that during the same time Europe observed an increase in TB notifications among those aged >15 years, this was also described in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. All three countries reported significant increases in TB notifications among children and adolescents in 2022 and 2023.
The authors theorise that e.g. improved diagnosis and reporting of paediatric TB, social risk factors among children born in the reporting country, and changes in population movements might have played a role in the EU/EEA rise, “but our analysis of TB surveillance data could not single out a specific explanation for the increase.”
Even though Cristea et al. acknowledge that the numbers of notified paediatric cases remain relatively low across the EU/EEA, they argue that “strengthened surveillance, prompt contact tracing and preventive measures are needed to limit the potential ongoing TB transmission.”
----Ends----
References/notes to editors:
[1] Cristea Veronica, Ködmön Csaba, Gomes Dias Joana, Rosales-Klintz Senia, the paediatric TB expert group. Increase in tuberculosis among children and young adolescents, European Union/European Economic Area, 2015 to 2023. Euro Surveill. 2025;30(11):pii=2500172.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.11.2500172
[2] In the Eurosurveillance issue marking World TB Day 2025, you can find the following articles on tuberculosis:
Domaszewska Teresa, Koch Anders, Jackson Sarah, Häcker Brit, Jonsson Jerker, Langholz Kristensen Kristina, Soini Hanna, Arrazola de Oñate Wouter, Guthmann Jean-Paul, Hauer Barbara, O´Meara Mary, Nordstrand Karine, Sizaire Vinciane, de Vries Gerard. Tuberculosis rates in migrants in low-incidence European countries, according to country of origin, reporting country and recency of immigration, 2014 to 2020. Euro Surveill. 2025;30(11):pii=2400489.
Available from: https://www.https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.11.2400489
Vasiliu Anca, Cristea Veronica, Stoycheva Krista, Rosales-Klintz Senia, Lange Christoph, Zenner Dominik, Ködmön Csaba. Shifting tuberculosis dynamics in the EU/EEA: geographical and drug resistance trends among people of foreign origin, 2019 to 2023. Euro Surveill. 2025;30(11):pii=2500173.
Available from: https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.11.2500173
[3] World Tuberculosis Day is observed on 24 March each year around the world. Its overall goal is to raise awareness about the burden of TB worldwide and the status of TB prevention and control efforts. TB elimination is defined as less than one case of TB disease per 1 million population per year.
END
COLUMBUS, Ohio – Americans have long believed that sports are one area in society that offers kids from all backgrounds the chance to succeed to the best of their abilities.
But new research suggests that this belief is largely a myth, and that success in high school and college athletics often is influenced by race and gender, as well as socioeconomic status, including family wealth and education.
“We often think about sports as level playing fields that reward people who earn their success, but that’s not the whole ...
According to a predictive model developed by a CNRS researcher1 and his European colleagues, the microalgae present in peat bogs could offset up to 14% of future CO2 emissions, thanks to their photosynthetic activity2. This conclusion was reached by basing the work on in situ experiments and the various predictive scenarios established by the IPCC. It is the first model to quantify the potential compensation of future CO2 emissions by peatlands on a global scale. This result lifts the veil on a currently ambiguous section of the terrestrial carbon cycle3 and its alterations by anthropogenic climate change. The associated study is published in Nature Climate Change.
Representing ...
CAMBRIDGE, MA – The ability to generate high-quality images quickly is crucial for producing realistic simulated environments that can be used to train self-driving cars to avoid unpredictable hazards, making them safer on real streets.
But the generative AI techniques increasingly being used to produce such images have drawbacks. One popular type of model, called a diffusion model, can create stunningly realistic images but is too slow and computationally intensive for many applications. On the other hand, the autoregressive models that power LLMs like ChatGPT are much faster, but they ...
Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, in collaboration with the Prevencasa free clinic in Tijuana, Mexico, have confirmed the presence of xylazine in the illicit drug supply at the U.S.-Mexico border. While xylazine remains less common in the Western U.S., border cities serve as key trafficking hubs and may have higher rates of emerging substances. The findings, published on March 20, 2025 in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, highlight the urgent need for public health intervention.
“Xylazine is a veterinary anesthetic that is not approved for human use and is increasingly detected alongside illicit fentanyl in parts of the United States ...
Lithium-6 is essential for producing nuclear fusion fuel, but isolating it from the much more common isotope, lithium-7, usually requires liquid mercury, which is extremely toxic. Now, researchers have developed a mercury-free method to isolate lithium-6 that is as effective as the conventional method. The new method is presented March 20 in the Cell Press journal Chem.
“This is a step towards addressing a major roadblock to nuclear energy,” says chemist and senior author Sarbajit Banerjee of ETH Zürich and Texas A&M University. “Lithium-6 is a critical material for the renaissance of nuclear energy, ...
Adverse genetic mutations can cause harm and are due to various circumstances. “Jumping genes” are one cause of mutations, but cells try and combat them with a specialized RNA called piRNA. For the first time, researchers from the University of Tokyo and their collaborators have identified how the sites responsible for piRNA production evolve effective behaviors against jumping genes. This research could lead to downstream diagnostic or therapeutic applications.
The word mutation can mean different things in different situations. ...
About The Study: In this cohort study of patients with ovarian cancer, American Indian and Black patients were 23% less likely to have an elevated cancer antigen (CA)-125 level at diagnosis. Current CA-125 thresholds may miss racially and ethnically diverse patients with ovarian cancer. International guidelines use CA-125 thresholds to recommend which patients with pelvic masses should undergo evaluation by gynecologic oncologists for ovarian cancer. However, CA-125 thresholds were developed from white populations. Work is needed to develop inclusive CA-125 thresholds and ...
About The Study: In this study, lifestyle changes after the pandemic were associated with an increase in the prevalence and severity of child astigmatisms, likely associated with changes in the developing cornea. The potential impact of higher degrees of astigmatism may warrant dedicated efforts to elucidate the relationship between environmental and/or lifestyle factors, as well as the pathophysiology of astigmatism.
Corresponding Authors: To contact the corresponding authors, email Jason C. Yam, MD (yamcheuksing@cuhk.edu.hk) and Li ...
MIAMI, FLORIDA (STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL MARCH 20, 2025, AT 11 A.M. EDT) – Since 2021, when lung cancer screening guidelines began to include younger people and those with a lower smoking history, the number of screenings climbed, but significant gaps remain, especially among people with limited access to healthcare, according to a new study led by researchers at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
"The updated guidelines substantially increased lung cancer screenings overall, even as ...
A team of researchers from Cleveland Clinic Genomic Medicine share insights from an early set of 19,000 patients to receive immune checkpoint inhibitor treatments for colorectal cancer in the U.S.
The report comes from the laboratory of Stephanie Schmit, PhD, MPH, and was published in JAMA Network Open. It serves as an opportunity to better understand how immune checkpoint inhibitor treatments, including PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitors, work in a larger population that reflects real-world settings. Dr. Schmit collaborated with a team of ...
