“One in two tuberculosis patients either has diabetes or pre-diabetes, that is every other TB patient has some sort of glucose metabolism disorder, shows our research,” says Dr. Vijay Viswanathan, senior Chennai-based diabetologist and President of Prof. M. Viswanathan Diabetes Research Centre.
Dr. Viswanathan has done extensive research involving patients which are affected by both TB and diabetes as a part of the government-run Regional Prospective Observational Research for TB (RePORT) India consortium, which collaborates internationally to publish cutting-edge research on TB.
Dr Viswanathan’s latest study published in Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome in May this year, directs the spotlight on TB patients who do not conventionally fall under the ‘diabetic,’ category, but have HBA1C levels between 5.7 and 6.4, or elevated fasting glucose levels between 100 and 125 mg/dl.
