Association of Diabetes and New Incidence of Tuberculosis: Evidence Study

Diabetes is a chronic condition brought on by either insufficient insulin production by the pancreas or inefficient insulin use by the body. A hormone called insulin controls blood sugar. Over the age of 18, there are reportedly 77 million people in India who have type 2 diabetes. Through various mechanisms, diabetes can increase the chance of contracting tuberculosis (TB). According to studies, hyperglycemia weakens cell-mediated immunity, leaving patients more susceptible to infections. The study showed that the weakening of immunity because of hyperglycemia, is responsible for converting latent TB to an active infection. Patients with elevated blood sugar have a 3.1% higher risk of contracting TB than people with normal blood sugar levels. On the other hand, TB is an infection generally seen in overcrowded, undernourished nations. The combined occurrence of these two diseases was seen in developing countries, which enthralled many epidemiologists toward the correlation between these two diseases. The increased incidence rate of DM in high-risk TB countries such as Sub-Saharan Africa has also pointed toward the fact that this hyperglycemic disorder may be the risk factor for an increased prevalence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) infection. South India, the Pacific Islands, and Mexico are the regions with an increased incidence of TB in people having T2DM. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also suspected that control of TB is being compromised by the increasing number of diabetics in the world, which emphasizes the double burden of TB and diabetes. In India, among the newly diagnosed TB cases, 54% had T2DM and only 25% had normal blood glucose levels. The younger population with DM are more receptive to reinfection than relapse. In contrast, the elderly population is more susceptible to relapse of TB than reinfection. As per TB treatment, the time taken for negative sputum culture is more in people with diabetes than in nondiabetics. It is also seen that the drugs used to treat TB worsen the blood glucose level. Therefore, early screening of TB in diabetics is very important to reduce the prevalence and minimize the complications.