TY - JOUR T1 - An evaluation of the completeness of reporting of childhood tuberculosis JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 176 LP - 179 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00031808 VL - 34 IS - 1 AU - S. S. S. Teo AU - M. Alfaham AU - M. R. Evans AU - J. M. Watson AU - A. Riordan AU - P. Sonnenberg AU - J. Clark AU - A. Hayward AU - M. Sharland AU - J. Moore-Gillon AU - V. Novelli AU - D. Quinn AU - D. Shingadia A2 - , Y1 - 2009/07/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/34/1/176.abstract N2 - The sensitivity of the Enhanced Tuberculosis Surveillance (ETS) scheme for monitoring tuberculosis in children is unknown. We used the British Paediatric Surveillance Unit (BPSU) reporting scheme to conduct a prospective observational study of tuberculosis in children aged <16 yrs in the UK. Reported cases were then matched with records from the ETS database. A total of 320 cases were reported to the BPSU between January and December 2004. We estimated that there were 557 paediatric cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in 2004: 222 (40%) cases reported to both BPSU and ETS, 98 (18%) reported to BPSU but not ETS and 237 (42%) reported to ETS but not BPSU. Children aged <5 yrs were significantly less likely to be reported to ETS compared with older children (p<0.01). There is substantial under-reporting of childhood tuberculosis, especially of children aged <5 yrs. ETS provides a representative picture of the demographics but may miss ∼20% of cases. This should be taken into account when planning training and resource requirements for tuberculosis. Increased efforts are needed to ensure that all paediatric cases are reported to ETS. ER -