Diabetes Raises Active Tuberculosis Risk Threefold

Diabetics are at significantly increased risk of developing active tuberculosis (TB), one of the world's most deadly diseases, a new study released on Tuesday shows. The research suggests that people with diabetes are at threefold increased risk of developing the active TB.

According to the analysis, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine on Tuesday, diabetes could account for as much as 10% of active cases in India and China, where the background prevalence of TB is high.

To reach their findings, researchers of the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed scientific data on 1.7 million people from 13 observational studies that have been looking on the relationship between diabetes and TB over the past four decades. The studies were conducted in Canada, Mexico, US, Britain, Russia, Taiwan, India and South Korea.

After reviewing the data, researchers Christie Jeon, M.B., and Megan Murray, M.D., D.P.H., of the Harvard School of Public Health, found that people with diabetes were three times more at risk of developing active TB that those with normal blood sugar.

In their paper titled Diabetes Mellitus Increases the Risk of Active Tuberculosis, researchers also wrote that diabetes might be contributing as much as 10% to surge in TB cases in India and China.

"Our finding shows that TB occurs more often among people with diabetes than in those without. Thus, people with diabetes may be important targets to regularly screen for and treat active TB in areas of high TB incidence like India," said researchers Christie Jeon and Murray.

Till now, scientists believed that only HIVdefine was fuelling the growth of TB epidemic in India. Now, the researchers say that there is clear evidence that diabetes predisposes people to TB and weakens their immune systemdefine needed to control bacterial infections. "We found consistent evidence for an increased risk of TB among people with diabetes," they said.

In March, the World Health Organization had expressed its concern over the fall in the decline rate of TB infection worldwide. According to WHO report, released on the eve of World Tuberculosis Day on March 17th, India accounts for the largest share of 22% of the three million new TB cases in South-East Asia every year.

An estimated one-third of the world's population is infected with the bacterium that causes TB, a disease that typically attacks the lungs and spread from one person to another when someone with the disease coughs or sneezes.

The findings are of much significance especially for India, which has the world’s largest population of people afflicted with both the conditions. Diabetes currently affects 35 million people in India, and the country has 3.8 million TB patients at any given time. The number of diabetic Indians is expected to increase to 57 million by 2025. Every year, India records 18 lakh new cases of TB and experts say nearly six lakh Indians are unaware that they suffer from this deadly infectious disease.

Tuberculosis, abbreviated as TB, is an airborne bacillus caused by mycobacteria, mainly Mycobacterium tuberculosis that spreads through coughing or sneezing. This deadly infection most commonly attacks the lungs (80%), as pulmonarydefine TB, but can also affect the central nervous system, the lymphatic system, the circulatory system, the genitourinary system, bones, joints and even the skin.

The World Health Organization declared TB a global health emergency in 1993, and the Stop TB Partnership developed a global plan to stop Tuberculosis that aims to save 14 million lives between 2006 and 2015.

About 9 million new tuberculosis cases are reported each year around the world and about 1.6 million people die from the infection.