Please join UVA students, faculty, alumni, and friends for the 2022 Center for Global Health Equity Symposium Keynote
Pranay Sinha, MD, UVA School of Medicine, 2014; Ram Family Global Health Scholar is our Keynote.
A Social Disease with a Medical Aspect: Why Undernutrition Cannot be an Afterthought for Global TB Elimination
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on tuberculosis (TB) care resulting in the first rise in global TB mortality in more a decade. Novel and aggressive strategies are needed to accelerate an eventual end to the TB epidemic. Undernutrition is the leading risk factor for TB globally because it increases TB incidence and increases the risk of poor outcomes. And yet, despite the central role of nutrition in contributing to TB incidence and mortality, few interventions have targeted this critical risk factor. In this talk, I will define the scale of the problem, review the evidence linking undernutrition to TB, highlight the importance of addressing this modifiable accelerant of the second highest infectious killer globally, and discuss the possibility of aiding TB elimination efforts through changes to nutritional policy.