The Hill: Waking up to the realities of drug-resistant tuberculosis in children
Sanjay Jain, associate professor of pediatrics and assistant professor of radiology and radiological science at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and international health director at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Infection and Inflammation Imaging Research

“…TB causes almost 10 million new cases worldwide annually, with strains impervious to drug treatments rapidly spreading. Recent estimates suggest that a million of these new cases occur in children, but the real number may be higher. Research has not kept up, and there is a lack of reliable diagnostics for young children and treatments for drug-resistant TB. … We need to think outside the box and invest in research to develop novel diagnostics and treatment options. … Right now in Congress, [investment in TB research] is a tough case to make, but it is one that our representatives need to hear. For most young children, [extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB)] represents a death sentence, as do many other increasingly resistant diseases. As the world has become more and more interconnected, diseases some of us once thought as belonging to other worlds need to be recognized as domestic issues” (12/9).