Monday, September 29, 2008

Diabetes and Tuberculosis Link

It's well known that infection with the AIDS virus increases a person's susceptibility to tuberculosis--especially in regions where TB prevalence is already high. Now it looks like diabetes also increases a person's vulnerability to TB.

That's another sign that the double burden of infectious disease and increases in chronic illness doesn't just add to the problems faced by poor countries but actually multiplies them.

Sources:

Links between diabetes mellitus and tuberculosis: ...[Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg. 2008] - PubMed Result

Diabetes makes people more vulnerable to TB: study | Science | Reuters

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is not news. The association of tuberculosis and diabetes has been known for many years. It is even in old established medical textbooks like the Oxford Textbook p 339.

Christine Gorman said...

Thanks for the clarification! I'm sure you'll agree, however, that the larger point about the worsening of the double burden faced by developing countries and the need for integrated health care still stands.

Anonymous said...

Yep, a big double burden coming up. China is in for a very large epidemic of diabetes and it is unknown whether rising living standards will be able to moderate the impact of this epidemic on tuberculosis.