Better nutrition can reduce the risk of TB infection by 40 to 50 percent, results revealed in research
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Health News: TB disease i.e. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease, so it spreads from one person to another. mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) is caused by bacteria and it affects the lungs of the patient. But the Lancet study found that improved diet and nutrition can reduce the risk of infection among patients with infectious pulmonary TB by 40 to 50 percent. Early weight gain in underweight TB patients can reduce the risk of death from TB by up to 60%. New evidence has come to light from the RATIONS trial, the trial findings of reducing the activation of tuberculosis by improving nutritional status.
Undernourishment has been a major reason for increasing TB infection and death rate in India. Which is responsible for more than 40 percent of new cases every year. At a briefing on the test results, former WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan pointed out that studies conducted several years ago by NIRT, Chennai, showed that TB patients who weighed less than 35 kg had a mortality rate of 45 kg. 4 times higher than those who were overweight.
Reducing the activation of tuberculosis by improving nutritional status (RATIONS) test results show that Improving nutrition in family members of a patient with pulmonary TB has reduced the incidence of all forms of TB by about 40 percent and infectious TB by about 50 percent., Based on patient outcomes, the study, published in The Lancet Global Health, found that early weight gain in the first two months reduced the risk of death from TB by 60 percent. Only 3 percent were able to work at enrollment, but this figure increased to 75 percent at the end of treatment.
Addressing the media, Dr. Swaminathan along with the lead authors of these papers, Dr. Anurag Bhargava and Dr. Madhavi Bhargava from Yenepoya Medical College, Mangalore, informed that this cluster-randomised trial is part of the National TB Elimination Program and the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, in association with chennai It was a 3-year study conducted between August 2019 and August 2022 in 4 districts of Jharkhand and was supported by the Medical Council of India. This is the first trial to study the effect of food basket and nutritional supplementation with micronutrients on TB incidence in 10,345 household contacts (HHCs) of 2800 patients with pulmonary TB treated with NTEP. All patients received a monthly 10 kg food basket (rice, pulses, milk powder, oil) and multivitamins for 6 months. Among family members, the intervention group received 5 kg of rice per person per month and 1.5 kg of pulses, half of which is given if the child is 10 years old. Dr Anurag said that low-cost food-based nutrition could significantly reduce TB Can be stopped till, the result of which was very encouraging.
In the Indian context, nutritional support should be an essential part of patient-centred care. The Government of India is already making strides towards the need to provide nutritional supplements to TB patients with initiatives such as the Ni-Kshaya Poshan Yojana and Ni-Kshaya Mitra under the Prime Minister’s TB-free India campaign. Improving the nutritional status of our population can potentially have a major impact on reducing the incidence of TB and achieving the ambitious goal of TB elimination.
More than two-thirds of the test participants were tribals, most of whom were receiving rations from the Public Distribution System (PDS). Four out of five patients in the trial had a BMI (body mass index) of less than 18.5, indicating undernourishment, while almost half of the patients were severely malnourished, with a BMI of less than 16 kg/m². One-third of patients’ family members were undernourished at the time of enrollment. The prevalence of HIV, diabetes, MDR-TB was low, but alcohol and tobacco use was high. About 10 percent of the patients were unable to stand. Nutritional interventions may provide significant protection against the development of infectious TB as seen in this trial.
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