A TB scientific section working group
The TB Undernutrition working group was established to highlight the importance of undernutrition as a risk factor for TB disease by engaging key stakeholders, providing critical analysis of bottlenecks to addressing this modifiable risk factor, and by helping identify innovative, strategic, and tailored responses to the delivery and scale-up of collaborative TB/undernutrition activities.
According to the Global Tuberculosis report 2021, Undernutrition is the leading risk factor for TB with a population attributable fraction of 19% which is higher than human-immunodeficiency virus (7.6%) and diabetes (3.1%). Being undernourished is associated with unfavorable treatment outcomes and mortality. Lastly, undernutrition is comorbid with other key TB risk factors including HIV and alcohol use and has implications for sustainable development goal 2 (zero hunger) and is, as such, a cross-cutting issue.
To propel action on nutrition in the context of TB, the working group plans to do the following:
- Highlight importance of nutrition in the TB pandemic
- Identify knowledge gaps, research priorities, and advocacy tools
- Develop content on undernutrition-TB for the Union’s website
- Engage stakeholders
- Organize two annual webinars
(Click to enlarge the above report)
