Access to Paediatric Formulations for the Treatment of Childhood Tuberculosis.

Treatments for tuberculosis infection and disease can be difficult to complete by children who cannot swallow pills. In the absence of commercially-available, child-friendly formulations, adult tablets must be crushed and mixed with food or liquid to mask the taste, a practice termed compounding. Despite the risks and challenges of compounding, 1 Rawlence E Lowey A Tomlin S Auyeung V Is the provision of paediatric oral liquid unlicensed medicines safe?. Arch Dis Child Educ Pract Ed. 2018; 103: 310-313 PubMed Google Scholar , 2 Dooms M Carvalho M Compounded medication for patients with rare diseases. Orphanet J Rare Dis. 2018; 13: 1 Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar it remains a common (and, in some cases, recommended) method of tuberculosis treatment administration for children. 3 Public Health Agency of CanadaCanadian Tuberculosis Standards 7th Edition. https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/infectious-diseases/canadian-tuberculosis-standards-7th-edition.htmlDate: 2014 Date accessed: January 9, 2020 Google Scholar , 4 Blumberg HM Burman WJ Chaisson RE et al. American Thoracic Society/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Infectious Diseases Society of America: treatment of tuberculosis. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2003; 167: 603-662 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1577) Google Scholar Paediatric formulations, in the form of dispersible tablets, have many advantages over compounded medicines: quality assurance, ease of administration and storage, improved palatability, and the ability to achieve accurate, weight-appropriate doses. 5 Taneja R Garcia-Prats AJ Furin J Maheshwari HK Paediatric formulations of second-line anti-tuberculosis medications: challenges and considerations. Int J Tuberc Lung Dis. 2015; 19: 61-68 Crossref PubMed Scopus (17) Google Scholar