Tuberculosis and Co-Morbidities: Challenges to New Strategies

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major global health challenge, and coexisting conditions – including HIV, diabetes, chronic respiratory, kidney, and liver diseases, substance use, and malnutrition – can complicate diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. Despite progress in TB prevention and care, important questions remain about how these conditions interact, how they affect treatment outcomes and quality of life, and how care can be coordinated to address patients’ needs. Current evidence highlights the value of identifying and managing comorbidities alongside TB, while also pointing to challenges such as overlapping symptoms, drug–drug interactions, treatment toxicities, and barriers to adherence. Integrated care is increasingly recognized as important to the End TB Strategy, but practical, context-sensitive approaches – and evidence on personalised care and the use of digital tools and artificial intelligence – remain areas for further investigation.This Research Topic aims to bring together contemporary evidence on the interactions between TB and comorbidities and identify feasible approaches to improve early diagnosis, treatment adherence, clinical outcomes, and quality of life. It will explore how coordinated and personalised care can address treatment complications, nutrition, and mental health, as well as how digital health and artificial intelligence may support TB care. To gather further insights into holistic and integrated management of TB with comorbidities, we welcome contributions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• TB and HIV;• TB and diabetes;• TB and chronic respiratory conditions, including post-tuberculosis lung disease;• TB with chronic kidney or liver disease;• Substance use, including smoking, alcohol, and drug use, in people with TB;• TB and malnutrition;• Drug–drug interactions and treatment toxicities, particularly in drug-resistant TB;• Treatment adherence, clinical outcomes, and quality of life• Nutrition and mental health in TB care;• Digital health and artificial intelligence for TB diagnosis and management;• Personalised and integrated models of TB care. Topic editors: Upasna Agarwal, Jaya Prasad Tripathy Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84195/tuberculosis-and-co-morbidities-challenges-to-new-strategies