Millions of TB patients in India have no food, weigh less than 20 kg

Under-nutrition increases the severity of TB, reduces patients' speed of recovery

One look at Puni Garasia, 14, was all it took Ashok Dave, a doctor operating a charitable mobile clinic service for 56 dusty, desolate hamlets in Sirohi, southwest Rajasthan, to suspect tuberculosis (TB).

“She was all skin and bones,” Dave, an employee of Global Hospital & Research Centre, a health not-for-profit, told IndiaSpend.

On March 24, 2017, World TB Day, the government released a guideline: Nutritional Care & Support for TB Patients in India, the first country-level adaptation of the 2013 World Health Organization guideline