India has the largest global burden of tuberculosis (TB)-related morbidity and mortality as well as under-nutrition. Of the many risk factors for TB, the one that we need to pay most attention is under-nutrition. Malnutrition (low body weight) is responsible for 50 percent of TB in India and also leads to higher death rate, because of the low capacity of the body to mount an immune response. Reports from tribal areas of our country show that the average body weight of men and women with TB is 30-35 kg.
Prevalence rates of TB are directly correlated with socioeconomic status, with people in the lowest economic quintile having 3-4 times the rate of TB than those in the highest. The global TB Report 2016, recently released, has revised the estimates for tuberculosis (TB) burden in India upwards. The country has 27 percent of the global burden of incident tuberculosis and 34 percent of…
