Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine: Screening And Preventive Treatment Program Reduced TB Incidence 83% Among Tibetan Children Living in Northern India

31 March 2026

Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine news release

A prospective analysis of the first eight years of the Johns Hopkins Medicine-led Zero TB in Kids program showed that significant reduction of TB transmission and burden among schoolchildren in high-burden areas can be achieved using existing TB screening, treatment and follow-up protocols.

Since 2017, Zero TB in Kids, a comprehensive TB screening and TB preventive treatment program (TPT), has been implemented in settings in northern India — such as schools, monasteries and nunneries — where Tibetan refugee schoolchildren congregate.

Between 2017 and 2024, screening and TPT led to an 83% reduction in TB incidence and a 32% reduction in the prevalence of latent TB infection among children, in spite of setbacks arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. And after one round of screening and TPT, the occurrence of new TB infections declined by 59% in the child population.

Read the full news release here.

Source: Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine