Biography

Anurag is Professor, Dept of Med, Yenepoya Medical College; Adjunct Prof, Dept of Medicine, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Earlier, he worked in tribal areas of Chhattisgarh for 10 years and later got trained in Epidemiology at McGill University. He is also a member of STAG-TB for WHO-SEAR and WHO GTB Programmes. He has worked at all levels fo care and was the principal investigator of the RATIONS trial. He has received the inaugural KV Desikan award and ICMR best extramural research award and has been profiled with Madhavi Bhargava in the Lancet. He is passionate about bedside teaching and research.

Expertise

TB Diagnostics
Public Health

Key Impacts

Food with medicines: Impact of nutritional support on nutritional status, body composition, and grip strength in people nested within the RATIONS trial

In a setting with high prevalence and severity of undernutrition, nutritional support in PwTB led to clinically significant improvements in nutritional status, body-composition and grip-strength without any increase in fat mass, aiding nutritional and functional recovery. The nutritional support needs to be graded in quantity and duration for optimal effect.

Source: Conference 2024
CD4 counts in HIV-negative participants in the RATIONS trial: The effects of gender and disease status

HHCs had lower CD4 counts than reference values for Indians, and a significant prevalence of low CD4 counts. Despite poorer nutritional parameters, women HHCs had significantly higher CD4 counts than men HHCs. Disease status was a predictor of low CD4 and very low counts despite HIV-negative status.

Source: Conference 2024
What can nutritional intervention do? 

Impact details available upon request.

Source: Conference 2024

Research Summaries