Enreca Health > Research Projects > Nutrition, diabetes an...

Nutrition, diabetes and TB/HIV

Project Period: 2006-10 

Project Budget: 4.6 mio

Main Collaborating Institutions: Mwanza and Muhimbili Medical Centres, NIMR, Tanzania; Dept Infectious Diseases, Rigshospitalet; Dept Infectious Diseases, Hvidovre Hospital; Steno Diabetes Centre; DBL-Centre for Health and Development; MRC Epidemiology Unit, Cambridge, UK; Dept Immunologi and Microbiology, University of Bergen, Norway.

Principal Project Coordinators
Dr. Nyagosya Range (Tanzania PI); Prof. Henrik Friis (Danish PI)

Project Description
Pulmonary TB (PTB) patients have usually lost 5-10 kg at the time they commence anti-TB treatment. Yet, the health system neglects the poor nutritional status and the inadequacy of the diet among the patients, as well as non-infectious diseases such as diabetes (DM), which may have played a role by causing flare-up of latent TB.

The aim of this study is to assess the effects of nutritional support during TB treatment, and to assess the role of DM as a determinant of PTB, and of treatment outcome.

In Mwanza, Tanzania, sputum-positive PTB patients co-infected with HIV (ie PTB+/HIV+) are randomised to receive a high or low energy-protein supplement daily during the first two months of treatment, with the same amount of micronutrients, given as biscuits. The PTB patients that are either sputum or HIV negative (ie PTB-/HIV+, PTB-/HIV- or PTB+/HIV-) are randomised to receive a daily biscuit with or without high doses of micronutrients. The main outcome will be weight gain, arm-muscle area and grip strength, but the patients will also be followed-up for survival to 12 months. For each of 400 PTB+ patients, one household and one neighbourhood control are selected. All participants will be examined for DM, using an oral glucose tolerance test.

By February 2009, recruitment was completed, reaching 1251 PTB+ and 718 non-PTB participants.

Contact person :  

Henrik Friis, MD, PhD
Professor of International Nutrition and Health

Dept Human Nutrition, University of Copenhagen
Rolighedsvej 30, DK-1958 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Tel: +45 3533 3860 / Fax: +45 3533 2483

Email: hfr @ life.ku.dk