A study examines the relationship between pulmonary tuberculosis and early life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine. The Great Chinese Famine, which spanned 1958 to 1962, was among the deadliest famines in human history. Yet the famine's long-term impact on infectious diseases remains uncertain. To assess the impact of the famine on pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) over subsequent decades, Justin Remais and colleagues analyzed data from more than one million PTB cases reported between 2005 and 2018 in Sichuan Province, which experienced high mortality rates during the famine. The authors also used a model that accounted for risks associated with aging as well as trends in tuberculosis incidence over time. When compared with neighboring cohorts, people born during the famine and their putative children exhibited significantly higher rates of tuberculosis, suggesting an intergenerational effect of prenatal and early life exposure to famine. A comparison of cohorts that were and were not affected by the famine found that more than 12,000 active PTB cases reported between 2005 and 2018 in Sichuan province were attributable to the famine. The findings suggest that individuals who experience severe malnourishment early in life, as well as their children, are at a heightened risk of contracting PTB in adulthood, according to the authors.
Article #20-08336: "Prenatal and early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine increased the risk of pulmonary tuberculosis in adulthood across two generations," by Qu Cheng et al.
MEDIA CONTACT: Justin V. Remais, University of California, Berkeley, CA; tel: 510-643-8900; e-mail: jvr@berkeley.edu
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Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences