Diabetics have up to a five times higher risk of contracting tuberculosis (TB) than non-diabetics according to researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston according to a UTHealth news release Monday.
The study published in the May issue of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization attributes 25% of TB cases to the presence of diabetes, while only 6% were due to HIV.
According to lead researcher Blanca Restrepo Ph.D., “With the increase in diabetes patients in TB-endemic areas, our findings highlight the re-emerging impact of diabetes mellitus, known as type 2, on TB control in regions of the world where both diseases are prevalent.”
The TB study group included 61 patients in South Texas and 172 in Northeastern Mexico. While the majority of the S. Texas participants were aware of their diabetes status, only 20% of the Mexican participants were aware.
Dr. Restrepo went on to say that a combined diagnosis of TB and diabetes is becoming more evident in the Hispanic population, but this may also be the case in populations at higher risk for the two diseases such as American Indians and African-Americans.
Knut Lonnroth, M.D., Ph.D., medical officer in the Stop TB Department at the World Health Organization said, “This research confirms results from several other studies showing an increased risk of TB in people with diabetes and means that it is important that clinicians actively seek to diagnose diabetes in people with TB, and vice versa”.
Tuberculosis continues to be the leading killer among bacterial diseases worldwide. In 2009, more than 9 million new cases were diagnosed and 1.7 million people died from the disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) suspects that TB control is being undermined by the growing number of patients with diabetes mellitus in the world, which currently stands at an estimated 285 million but is anticipated to reach 438 million by 2030.
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