During the COVID-19 pandemic, tuberculosis (TB) mortality surged for the first time in two decades. While these increases were widely attributed to disruptions to TB services, such as diagnostic delays and treatment interruptions, a new study suggests that we may have overlooked the impact of food insecurity during pandemic lockdowns.

Using individual interviews and focus group discussions, researchers from Boston University, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, found that 78% of households had no income, 67% resorted to distress financing to afford food, and 44% changed their diets—often by eating less or substituting less nutritious foods during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Southern India. Given the well-established link between undernutrition and TB progression, these findings raise important concerns about how food insecurity during crises may fuel TB-related deaths.

Risky driving by parents and other motorists who do the school run is putting children in danger, according to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Traffic Injury Prevention.