Food for Thought: The Role of Undernutrition and Diabetes in India’s TB Epidemic

Abstract

Despite shouldering more than a quarter of the global TB burden, the Indian government has promised its citizens a “TB-Mukt Bharat” (TB-free India) by 2025, ten years ahead of the global target.1 To accomplish this feat, the government dramatically increased TB funding over the past few years. Indeed, the Indian TB budget in 2016 was 280 million dollars with 62% of the funding coming from international sources.1 In 2018, India spent 580 million dollars on TB programs with 79% coming from domestic sources—a marked increase.2 As the TB budget grows in girth, we must ensure that funding is directed toward addressing challenges particular to the India: pervasive undernutrition and the meteoric rise of diabetes which are driving the TB epidemic in India.