What are the guidelines for treatment of TB among children?
Ans: If a child is diagnosed to have tuberculosis, a full course of treatment has to be given. Children rarely suffer from smear positive disease. As a result, there are few bacilli in the lesions and no chance of resistant mutants being present. The recommended regimen is Cat III. The dose of drug has to be calculated in mg per kg body weight and given from loose drug stock. For patients with military or meningeal TB, a fourth drug, streptomycin can be added and the total duration made to 9 months.
