In the study, published in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, which tracked infants from birth to seven years, researchers found that though vitamin D levels were extraordinarily low in the majority of these children, there was no relationship between TB incidence and vitamin D deficiency.
“This was true when we used the entire follow-up time period or when we only looked at children up to one year of age. Though we did not show a relationship, this is an important finding as it suggests that vitamin D supplementation may not be useful to prevent TB in this setting and with this population. Therefore, other interventions or relationships should be investigated further instead and we may need to reconsider regarding vitamin D and TB risk.
Previous studies on adults had found a link between vitamin D and TB. People who develop TB often present with low vitamin D levels when they are diagnosed. A decade ago UCT and the National Institute for Medical Research in the UK found that vitamin D deficiency was extremely common in black Africans living in Cape Town, and was also associated with susceptibility to TB infection.