New TB test could save millions of kids

THE HAGUE: Scientists on Thursday unveiled a revolutionary way of screening children for tuberculosis, which they say will prevent hundreds of thousands each year from contracting the world’s deadliest infectious disease. A multinational team based at the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation in The Hague have developed a simple way of testing the stool samples of children under five. The method, which can be carried out in remote communities, would replace the current practice, which is invasive and normally only available in larger hospitals. An estimated 240,000 children die from tuberculosis every year. The disease is curable and rarely deadly in infants if diagnosed and treated in time. As much as 90 per cent of tuberculosis deaths in children are untreated cases. The current test relies on the patient providing a sample of sputum — phlegm from the lower windpipe. The sample is then analysed by a special machine, which then gives a result. — AFP