A study published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine revealed that diabetics are at three times increased risk of having active tuberculosis (TB).

Researchers of the Harvard School of Public Health examined data on 1.7 million people from 13 observational studies on the connection between diabetes and TB over the past four decades.

The study results confirmed that diabetes raises the risk of active TB by threefold irrespective of geographic area.

The facts also hinted that diabetes may be responsible for over 10% of TB cases in India as well as China.

If these discoveries are replicated in other countries, worldwide TB control might take advantage of special attention to diabetics when identifying and treating latent TB.

The study researchers said that the role of diabetes may complicate attempts to cut down TB rates that trail only AIDS on the list of the leading killers among infectious diseases.

An estimated one-third of the world's population is infected with the bacteria, which causes TB, a disease that typically attacks the lungs and spread from one person to another when someone with the disease coughs or sneezes.