Child TB deaths set to fall as Kenya launches new drugs

By Katy Migiro NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – More children are likely to survive tuberculosis, the leading infectious disease killer, after Kenya introduces child-friendly medicines on Oct. 1 – the first country in the world to do so. Some 155,000 children with TB are set to benefit across 18 countries that have already ordered the new medicines and are preparing to roll them out, starting with Kenya, according to the TB Alliance campaign group that oversaw their development. “Now, with the appropriate treatments, we can make rapid progress in finding and treating children with TB so we can achieve a TB free generation,” Kenya’s health minister Cleopa Mailu said in a statement on Tuesday.

Original post: 
Child TB deaths set to fall as Kenya launches new drugs