The problem with vitamin D supplementation for tuberculosis

Abstract

“We were hungry all the time”, is the first thing a 28-year-old tuberculosis survivor from rural Haiti told one of us (JF) when asked in 2017 about his experience of being treated for the disease. This patient had been cutting sugar cane to support his family of seven—all of whom lived in a one-room shack—but had to stop his gruelling labour once he became sick with tuberculosis, both because of his physical symptoms and because he had to go to the clinic daily for directly observed therapy. Without his income, his family fell into ruin and the pressing need to feed his children became his most urgent priority. “It was hard to take my treatment when the little ones were holding their bellies and crying. We lost so much to TB.”