Latent tuberculosis in children: diagnosis and management

Control of tuberculosis in children often escapes attention because of the paucibacillary nature of the illness. However, they contribute much of the morbidity, mortality and future reservoir of the disease which reiterates the importance of risk-factor based screening for latent infection and appropriate treatment. We review the modalities and importance of diagnosis and treatment of latent tuberculosis infection in children. At this time, the role for interferon-gamma release assays in low-income, high-burden settings is rather limited but further research in the coming years might clear their role in children. An important emerging area of research is the development of an improved skin test for TB that uses specific mycobacterial antigens rather than tuberculin, thus is more feasible and useful in resource limited settings.