Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease transmitted through the respiratory system. China is one of the countries with a high burden of TB. Since 2004, an average of more than 800,000 cases of active TB have been reported each year in China. Analyzing the case data from 2004-2018, we find significant differences in TB incidence by age group. Therefore, the effect of age heterogeneous structure on TB transmission needs further study. We develop a model of TB to explore the role of age heterogeneity as a factor in TB transmission. The model is fitted numerically using the nonlinear least squares method to obtain the key parameters in the model, and the basic reproduction number Rv 0.8017 is calculated and the sensitivity anal-ysis of Rv to the parameters is given. The simulation results show that reducing the number of new infections in the elderly population and increasing the recovery rate of elderly patients with the disease could significantly reduce the transmission of tuberculosis. Furthermore the feasibility of achieving the goals of the WHO End TB Strategy in China is assessed, and we obtain that with existing TB control measures it will take another 30 years for China to reach the WHO goal to reduce 90% of the number of new cases by year 2049. However, in theoretical it is feasible to reach the WHO strategic goal of ending tuberculosis by 2035 if the group contact rate in the elderly population can be reduced though it is difficulty to reduce the contact rate.

翻译：结核病是一种通过呼吸道传播的传染病。中国是全球结核病高负担国家之一。自2004年以来，中国每年平均报告超过80万例活动性结核病例。通过对2004-2018年病例数据的分析，我们发现不同年龄组的结核病发病率存在显著差异。因此，年龄异质性结构对结核病传播的影响有待进一步研究。我们构建了一个结核病模型，以探究年龄异质性作为传播因素的作用。采用非线性最小二乘法对模型进行数值拟合，获取模型中的关键参数，并计算出基本再生数Rv=0.8017，同时给出了Rv对各参数的敏感性分析。仿真结果表明，减少老年人群中的新感染数量并提高老年患者的康复率，可显著降低结核病的传播。此外，本研究评估了中国实现世界卫生组织"终结结核病战略"目标的可行性，结果显示：在现有防控措施下，中国还需30年（至2049年）才能实现将新发病例数减少90%的WHO目标。然而，理论上若能降低老年人群的群体接触率（尽管实施难度较大），在2035年前实现WHO终结结核病的战略目标是可行的。