Researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health studied data on 1.7 million people around the world and found diabetes makes a person three times more likely to develop tuberculosis (TB). The data also showed having diabetes raised a person's chances of getting active TB regardless of geographic region.
 
Evidence shows diabetes predisposes people to TB infection and impairs their ability to respond to infection. The role of role diabetes may complicate efforts to drive down rates of TB, which trails only AIDS as the leading killer among infectious diseases.

This article originally appeared in the August 2008 issue of Kidney Beginnings: The Electronic Newsletter.