Youth Power to #ENDTB Regional deliberations by TB affected youth advocates

With over a third of the world’s population aged between 10 and 24 years, today’s generation of young people is the largest in human history. As the future leaders and drivers of growth, productivity and innovation, young people are our greatest assets. Investment in their health and wellbeing, as well as harnessing their potential as agents of change, is vital to efforts to end deadly epidemics such as tuberculosis (TB) - that remains the world’s top infectious killer. Young people between the ages of 15-34 are disproportionately affected and carry among the heaviest burdens of the disease. They are also often the largest population group in developing countries with their role and potential contributing immensely to a nation’s social and economic capital. Enabling their access to care and ensuring their meaningful participation in efforts to end TB at all levels will pave the way to a better, safer and healthier world free of TB. Currently the potential of youth has not been fully harnessed in efforts to end TB.

Only a few countries capture TB data in suitably age-disaggregated ways to allow full understanding of TB’s impact in this group and even fewer provide the adolescent-friendly services our young people need to access diagnosis and care. Schools and other educational institutions where young people congregate provide multiple contacts for young people with infectious TB, yet few countries have a full understanding of tackling TB within this context so adolescent-friendly services for diagnosis and care are severely lacking. In addition, peer pressure, fear of stigma, risk behaviors such as alcohol, substance and tobacco use, and co-infections such as HIV, create challenges for this age group – both in understanding the symptoms, the risks and seeking help for TB diagnosis and treatment.