Synopsis
Tuberculosis is a major cause of child morbidity and mortality globally. Young children are at particular risk of severe and disseminated disease following exposure to a person with tuberculosis. Public health and clinical services, including in Victoria, focus on early detection and treatment of both disease and infection. There have been recent developments that potentially strengthen and decentralise services for tuberculosis.
- Strengthening services for the management of TB in children in Victoria.
- Recent advances and experience in the management of CNS TB.
- Opportunities to strengthen services for children in TB endemic settings.
Speakers
Dr Saniya Kazi is a paediatrician who trained at RCH. She is the inaugural and current TB Fellow at RCH as well as a community paediatrician who provides refugee health services for Monash Health.
Dr Yara Abo is an advanced trainee in paediatric infectious diseases and general paediatrics who has trained in RHSC Edinburgh, St Mary’s Hospital London and RCH Melbourne. She was infectious diseases fellow in the RCH TB clinic in 2019 and 2020.
Dr Steve Graham provides leadership and support for TB services at RCH and Monash Children’s Hospital and has clinical and research experience in TB-endemic countries in African and Asia-Pacific regions. He chaired WHO’s child and adolescent TB working group from 2011 to 2017, leading development of new formulations of TB drugs for young children, and co-Chairs the Guidelines Development Group updating WHO’s child and adolescent TB guidelines in 2021.