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Missed along the way
A child's journey with tuberculosis

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More than 1 million children get tuberculosis (TB) every year, yet only 1/2 are diagnosed. Every 3 minutes, a child dies of tuberculosis.

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Delayed diagnosis, delayed care : Here's the story of Francisco, a child with drug-resistant TB.
"It took a long time to start the treatment, even though he started to feel ill 8 months ago." Fernando, Francisco's dad

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July 2024
Francisco is 9 years old. He no longe plays with his friends. He has lost his appetite and coughs a lot. His parents are worried.

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After two months without a diagnosis at the nearest health centre, his parents take him to a public hospital. They have to make that journey many times afterwards, placing a considerable financial burden on the family.

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Francisco is started on nutrion support as he is loosing weight. However, no further testing is done to find the root cause of the illness. Meanwhile, he is stigmatised by other children and neighbours.
"If you have a sick child, don't pay attention to those people who say it's witchcraft or who try to confront you."
Fernando, Francisco's dad
Words in the tags : malnurished, witchcraft

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November 2024
Francisco continues to lose weight. He is now severly malnurished. Nutrional support is not making him any better, so it is stopped. His parents feel desperate and worried.

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January 2025
His parents return to the hospital, where a sputum sample is finally requested for a TB test - something that is difficult for a child to produce. It took Francisco 4 visits to finally produce a good sample for testing and get a long-awaited diagnosis : drug-resistant tuberculosis (a more difficult-to-treat form of the disease.)
Label : drug-resistant tuberculosis

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Children with TB often don't show clear signs of TB. They may just feel tired, have a fever, or have slow weight gain and become sick with few TB Bacteria. As a result, regular adult tests can miss TB in children.

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Use tools recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) :
- treatment decision algorithms, a symptom-based scoring system.
- non-sputum samples, like stool for lab-testing.
So, children with TB can be diagnosed and treated on time.

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March 2025, 9 months later
Francisco's TB treatment finally begins.
"It was a complicated treatment. There were no child-friendly formulations available in the hospital for some medicines so adult pills had to be crushed - sometimes half a tablet, sometimes a quarter. For the family, managing all of this was very difficult."
Natalia, MSF doctor

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Children need TB treatment made just for them. Countries are encouraged to provide WHO-recommended all-oral TB treatments in child-friendly formulations.

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February 2026
Francisco is now 11 years old. He is following his treatment for the required 18 months and is responding well to it.
"Don't underestimate the illness. You must really double your efforts. I was worried about my son, and today he's back playing." Fernando, Francisco's dad

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Every missed sign & every delayed decision push children with tuberculosis closer to severe disease and death.
Tuberculosis in children is preventable and curable.
Timely diagnosis & treatment can save lives.