Randomized Clinical Trial of the Combined Effects of Vitamin C and Anti-tuberculosis Drugs in Tuberculosis Patients

Tuberculosis is one of the major health problems in Bangladesh as well as other regions of the world. The aim of this clinical trial was to investigate combined effects of vitamin C and anti-tuberculosis drugs in tuberculosis patients.

A total of 32 tuberculosis patients were enrolled in the study through random sampling and separated into intervention (vitamin C and anti-tuberculosis drugs) and control (only anti-tuberculosis drugs) groups, where the intervention group was treated with 1000 mg of vitamin C daily in addition to anti-tuberculosis drugs and the control group was treated with only anti-tuberculosis drugs for 28 days. In the second stage, the microbial count of tuberculosis patients was assessed using sputum smear test for control and intervention groups after a 7-d time interval.

Smear test of the patient first week showed that the microbial loads comparatively decreased compared to the test of the second week using combined treatment of vitamin C and anti-tuberculosis drugs for the intervention group (p=0.034). In contrast, the control group included p=0.000, p=0.341 and p=0.346 for the second, third and fourth-week tests with no significance.

Combined effects of vitamin C and anti-tuberculosis drugs in TB patients.