guidelines – tb & undernutrition

The Unspoken Risks of Promoting Nutritious Food as a Vaccine for TB Prevention

Greetings from RePORT India! We are delighted to share some wonderful news with you. The World Health Organization (WHO) has released new consolidated guidelines on Tuberculosis and Undernutrition, and it is a proud moment for all of us that RePORT India’s work has been recognised in these guidelines under the section on TB and comorbidities.

Evidence from RePORT India based study demonstrates the critical role of undernutrition in TB progression and treatment failure. The multicenter prospective cohort study by Sinha et al., 2023 showed that undernourished individuals have significantly higher risk of poor treatment outcomes, including mortality. This evidence has been cited in the WHO Consolidated Guidelines on Tuberculosis: Module 6 – Tuberculosis and Comorbidities, 2nd edition, 7 October 2025, emphasizing global relevance:

“People with undernutrition are more than twice as likely to fall ill from TB (3), and to have a higher risk of poor treatment outcomes such as death and loss to follow-up, compared with those who do not have undernutrition (4, 5).”

Key Publication
Sinha P, Ponnuraja C, Gupte N, Prakash Babu S, Cox SR, Sarkar S, et al. Impact of undernutritionon tuberculosis treatment outcomes in India: a multicenter, prospective, cohort analysis. Clin Infect Dis. 2023;76:1483–91. doi:10.1093/cid/ciac915. PMCID: PMC10319769

We would like to extend our sincere appreciation to Dr. Pranay Sinha, Dr. Sonali Sarkar, Dr. Senbagavalli Prakash, and their team and our RePORT India Advisor, Dr. Anurag Bhargava, for their valuable contributions to this important achievement. This recognition marks yet another significant milestone for RePORT India. It stands as a testament to the impactful work being carried out by our investigators and collaborators.