New Delhi: July 16, 2008 - Diabetes has now been found to be fuelling India's deadly tuberculosis (TB) epidemic. In fact, according to researchers, it may be to blame for more than 10% of TB cases in India and China.

After reviewing scientific data of the last four decades on 1.7 million people from 13 studies done in Canada, Mexico, US, Britain, Russia, Taiwan, India and South Korea, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston have concluded that diabetics are three times more at risk of developing active TB that those with normal blood sugar.

Announcing the finding in the Public Library of Science journal 'PLoS Medicine' on Tuesday, Harvard epidemiologist Megan Murray said there was clear evidence that diabetes predisposed people to TB and impaired their ability to respond to infection.

Murray added that even a causal link or a merging epidemic between diabetes and TB did not bode well for the future, especially in low- to middle-income countries such as India and China, that are experiencing the fastest increase in diabetes prevalence and the highest burden of TB in the world.

"Our finding shows that TB occurs more often among people with diabetes than in those without. Thus, people with diabetes may be important targets to regularly screen for and treat active TB in areas of high TB incidence like India," said researchers Christie Jeon and Murray. Till now, scientists believed that only HIV was helping drive the onslaught of TB epidemic in India.

The finding has serious implications for India which is home to both the highest number of TB and diabetes patients. Diabetes presently affects 35 million Indians. The number is expected to increase to 57 million by 2025. More