The World Health Organization has stated that each year almost 100,000 children gets affected with tuberculosis and eventually die. Child deaths due to tuberculosis are more apparent in low income groups, especially in underdeveloped countries. In some rare cases, tuberculosis may also affect the children of North America.

Tuberculosis is caused by bacteria known as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The disease is known to be start by breathing in tuberculosis bacilli, which are dispersed in the atmospheric air. These are actually initial stages of mycobacterium tuberculosis. These get spread in the atmospheric air through coughing, sneezing, and breathing and even through talking. When tuberculosis bacilli enter the human body through breathing, they settle down in the lungs for quite a longer period of time. Sometimes these may not even develop into actual tuberculosis disease. The WHO has reported that usually only ten percent of the infected people develop fully blown tuberculosis.

In children, during the initial stages of tuberculosis, the bacteria tend to infect the lungs. During this period the bacteria remains silent and in some cases where the immune system is strong it might just flush off the infection at the primary stage itself. In other cases, as the stage of tuberculosis advances, the actual symptoms begin to show off more prominently. These symptoms are pneumonia, setting of liquid in the lungs leading to its damage. When the seriousness of the disease becomes worse, the child experiences heavy coughing and weight reduction. In the last stages, the bacteria may result into some other types of infections.

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