India Pharma Outlook Team | Wednesday, 20 August 2025
A big study paid for by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) found that better food cuts down on tuberculosis (TB) cases and deaths a lot. The results, published in The Lancet, got the nod from the World Health Organization (WHO). WHO used these findings in their new world plan on handling TB.
The study wanted to see if giving more food could lower the number of new TB cases among household members close to TB patients with lung disease. The study looked at home folks of 2,800 patients in four parts of Jharkhand, under 28 National TB Program units.
From August 2019 to January 2021, this big trial tracked 10,345 household contacts until July 2022. While TB patients in every group got food for six months, only home people in the test group got extra food and small good food in their food each month.
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Results said that 94.8% of people in the test group and 90.7% in the usual group finished the check. The extra food was tied to a big drop in new TB cases over two years of watching.
A lot of the people in the study were from local groups, like Santhals, Ho, Munda, Oraon, and Bhumij, with 34% not having enough food. The study showed that TB and not having enough food work together as twin troubles in India, making each other worse.
“To our view, this is the first test to show that giving more food can cut down on new TB cases in households,” the study said. They added this kind of work could make TB go down faster in places with a lot of TB and not enough food. The findings are key to making health rules and show how important food is in the fight against TB all over the world.
