Meredith Brooks, Ph.D.

Cases of children with tuberculosis are considered sentinel events because children become sick and die with this infection much faster than adults do. Yet children have been largely neglected in the study of how tuberculosis spreads and how to control it. Active-case finding efforts are essential to detecting missing cases of tuberculosis and identifying individuals who may benefit from preventive treatment. By using information about the geographic locations and links between child and adult cases of tuberculosis, our research will make children the cornerstone of new tuberculosis surveillance methods to evaluate strategies that can promptly identify tuberculosis transmission, reduce the number of undetected tuberculosis cases and, ultimately, drive down tuberculosis rates globally.

Supported by the Mary Fuller Russell Fund