As many as 50 per cent of people with tuberculosis in Tamil Nadu are either diabetic or have pre-diabetes, a study conducted by a city hospital has found. The study also found that most of the diabetics had the infectious form of pulmonary TB.
The study, which was conducted on 800 known TB patients registered with the government’s TB centres in Chennai, Thiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts, revealed that 25.3 per cent of those studied had diabetes, while another 24 .5 per cent of TB sufferers had pre-diabetes, which is a condition with abnormal glucose mechanism and insulin resistance, usually a precursor to full-fledged diabetes.
“These findings pose a great challenge for TB and diabetes control in the country because diabetes can worsen the clinical course of TB, and TB can worsen glucose control in people with diabetes,” said Dr Vijay Vishwanathan, author of the study that was published in an international journal last week.
The study also found that a TB patient’s diabetes was likely to be the cause of treatment failure, re-lapse or reinfection of tuberculosis.
Men with TB were more likely to develop diabetes than women, probably because of higher rates of tobacco use and alcohol consumption.
“Diabetic patients have weaker immunity and are more prone to infectious diseases than other people.
Moreover, in countries such as India where TB is prevalent, people with diabetes are three times at risk of acquiring the infectious disease,” said Dr Vijay, stressing on screening diabetics for TB and vice versa, to ensure that the diseases can be diagnosed and treated early.
Dr Vijay inaugurated a free screening programme, consisting of free fasting and postprandial glucose tests, for people with both diabetes and TB at all centres of MV Centre for Diabetes at Royapuram, Perungudi and Mylapore.