 Hello everyone, I am Dr. Archana, I am the Associate Consultant, Infectious Disease Specialist at Manipal Hospital, Oral Airport Road, Bangalore. In children, the tuberculosis can be divided into different stages, like it can be the initial exposure, then they go ahead with tuberculosis infection, then tuberculosis disease. So how does this happen? When a child comes in contact with an adult who is having active tuberculosis, which can be a pulmonary tuberculosis that is, a tuberculosis in the lung, or a disseminated form of tuberculosis, when a child maintains a close contact with such tuberculosis patient, then the child is said to be exposed. Not all exposed children tend to get tuberculosis. Only 30% of these exposed children develop tuberculosis infection. Of these 30% children who develop tuberculosis infection, only 5-10% progress towards tuberculosis disease and rest of the 90-95% maintain the tuberculosis bacterium in a latent stage. They can get reactivated in the future, especially when the immunity of the child drops. So finally, it could be the first initial exposure, then followed by the tuberculosis infection and the tuberculosis disease, which can be either on the active form or in the latent stage. These are the different stages of tuberculosis.