Tuberculosis is a common and serious infectious disease in many developing countries. Tuberculosis patients are generally malnourished and it is known for its ill effects on tuberculosis patients’ health. Malnourishment reduces the immunity of the patient and because of that tuberculosis may be fatal. Most common form of tuberculosis is pulmonary tuberculosis and it is the pulmonary tuberculosis which is infectious. Adequate diet with suitable antibiotics can reduce the infectiousness of tuberculosis patient. Diet is important for tuberculosis patients, because most of tuberculosis patients are from poor socioeconomic background and from poorer countries. In fact tuberculosis is a disease of the poor and here diet plays an important role.
The objective of diet in tuberculosis:
1. To provide adequate nutrition so that immunity of the patient is improved and patients’ health can improve. Ideally tuberculosis patients should take well balanced diet with provision of some extra protein and calories.
2. To accelerate recovery from tuberculosis with proper treatment and diet acts as adjuvant in speedy recovery of patient. Without providing balanced diet recovery from tuberculosis may take much longer time.
3. To prevent weight loss (weight loss is common in tuberculosis due to malnutrition) and also to prevent weakness. Weight loss and weakness can only be prevented by adequate nutrition with some additional calorie intake.
4. To supply enough protein with a properly planned diet. Proteins are the most essential components of nutrition for recovery and healing. Patients’ health can not be improved without adequate amount of proteins.
The above objective should be met in provisioning a diet for tuberculosis patients for maintaining optimal health state of the patient.
Tags: Pulmonary tuberculosis