A large trial undertaken in India has underscored the role of nutritional supplementation in sharply cutting down tuberculosis (TB) disease rate in the household contacts of an index patient, and mortality reduction in people diagnosed with active pulmonary TB. The trial was conducted in four districts in Jharkhand between August 2019 and August 2022. The results of the study were published on Tuesday (August 9) in The Lancet and The Lancet Global Health.
In the randomised controlled trial involving household contacts of patients with pulmonary TB, nutritional support led to 39-48% reduction in TB disease in the intervention group compared with the control arm. In the study that lasted for six months, 122 people in the control group developed TB whereas the intervention arm had only 96 TB cases.
The 39% reduction in TB disease included all forms of TB (pulmonary and extra-pulmonary), while the 48% reduction was in microbiologically confirmed pulmonary TB. The intervention arm had 5,621 household contacts, and the control group had 4,724 family members.
