The Role of Diet in the Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis: An Evaluation in a Controlled Chemotherapy Study in Home and Sanatorium Patients in South India

Ramakrishnan, C V and Rajendran, Kanthi and George Jacob, P and Fox, Wallace and Radhakrishna, S (1961) The Role of Diet in the Treatment of Pulmonary Tuberculosis: An Evaluation in a Controlled Chemotherapy Study in Home and Sanatorium Patients in South India. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 25 (3). pp. 339-359. ISSN 0042 9686

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Abstract

Before the advent of antituberculosis chemotherapy, a diet rich in calories, proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins was generally considered to be an important, if not essential, factor in the treatment of tuberculosis. The introduction of specific antituberculosis drugs, however, has so radically altered the management of the disease that the role of diet has to be reconsidered in the light of the recent advances in treatment. An evaluation of the influence of diet in the treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis with isoniazid plus p-aminosalicylic acid was recently undertaken by the Tuberculosis Chemotherapy Centre, Madras, in the course of a controlled comparison of home and sanatorium chemotherapy for tuberculous patients from a poverty-stricken community in Madras City. Despite the fact that during the year of treatment the home patients subsisted on a markedly poorer diet, were physically more active and, on the average, gained less weight than the sanatorium patients, the overall response to treatment in the home series closely approached that in the sanatorium series, although there was a tendency for tubercle bacilli to disappear earlier in the latter. Direct evidence has been presented that none of the dietary factors studied (calories, carbohydrates, total and animal proteins, fats, minerals and vitamins) appears to influence the attainment of quiescent disease among tuberculous patients treated for one year with an effective combination of antimicrobial drugs, and that initial chemotherapy of patients at home can be successful even if the dietary intake is low throughout the period of treatment.

Item Type:	Article
Subjects:	Tuberculosis > Clinical Research
Divisions:	Clinical Research
Depositing User:	Dr. Rathinasabapati R
Date Deposited:	15 Jul 2013 10:41
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2016 04:32
URI:	http://eprints.nirt.res.in/id/eprint/34

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