In TB patients, it is nearly impossible to determine nutritional status before disease and thus determine whether malnutrition led to TB or TB led to malnutrition. However, some studies have established a link between vitamin A deficiency and susceptibility to respiratory infections and progression from latent to active TB disease. Preschool children with symptomatic vitamin A deficiency have been found to have respiratory disease at twice the rate in non-deficient children, irrespective of anthropometric status. Getz et al found 81% of persons in a cohort with LTBI that had low levels of vitamin A developed disease compared to 30% of those with normal levels. We had previously observed a 32% prevalence of vitamin A deficiency in a subset of Tuberculosis case contact study contacts with latent TB (unpublished data). The mechanism of the benefits of vitamin A on clinical outcomes especially as related to measles is largely unknown and on tuberculosis is yet to be proven. However, it is likely to be related to an influence on the immune system.In experimental and animal models, vitamin A promotes differentiation and cytokine secretion by macrophages and may down regulate the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines e.g. TNF-alpha and IL-6. in children. Vitamin A supplementation has been reported to promote lymphogenesis and induce a higher proportion of CD4 naïve T-cells (CD4+ CD45RA). In addition, the quality of T-cell function may also be affected by Vitamin A.There are data indicating that IFN-gamma production is decreased in vitamin A deficient children while optimal in normal children. Immune responses of PBMCs from non-deficient children stimulated with specific antigens were biased towards more of IFN-gamma, and less of IL-10 and IL-4. This cytokine profile is reminiscent of decreased Treg differentiation and/or Th1-type immune response induced by vitamin A, which is required for protection against an intracellular pathogen such as M.tb. Indeed, data from our previous studies suggest that initial decrease in Treg induction in contacts of TB cases was associated with protection against progression to TB disease