To the Editor: Any role that vitamin D deficiency plays in increasing the risk of tuberculosis1,2 should not detract from the fact that infection with the causative organism is the necessary risk factor for disease, and decreasing the risk of infection initially will prevent disease even while factors that increase the risk of progression to active disease3 are present.
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- 1. Truswell AS. Vitamin D and tuberculosis. Med J Aust 2013; 199: 641. <MJA full text>
- 2. MacLachlan JH, Cowie BC. Epidemiology of tuberculosis and levels of vitamin D in Australia: person, place and time. Med J Aust 2013; 199: 655-656. <MJA full text>
- 3. Konstantinos A. Testing for TB. Aust Prescr 2010; 33: 12-18. http://www.australianprescriber.com/magazine/33/1/12/18/ (accessed Feb 2014).
- 4. MacLachlan JH, Lavender CJ, Cowie BC. Effect of latitude on seasonality of tuberculosis, Australia, 2002-2011. Emerg Infect Dis 2012; 18: 1879-1881.
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