Anurag Bhargava

Professor Anurag Bhargava brings over 35 years of clinical experience across all levels of healthcare in India, including more than a decade in low-resource settings. A specialist in internal medicine, he graduated from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, and completed a Master’s degree in epidemiology in 2012 from the Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health at McGill University.

His research has established undernutrition as both the most prevalent risk factor for tuberculosis (TB) incidence and a correctable determinant of TB mortality, in India and globally. He led the RATIONS trial, a large cluster-randomised study in eastern India that demonstrated a significant reduction in TB incidence among household contacts and mortality among patients through targeted nutritional supplementation. He also coordinated the development of India’s national policy on nutritional care and support for people with TB, which informed the design of direct benefit transfer schemes and food support packages for patients.

Professor Bhargava is a member of the WHO Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Tuberculosis (STAG-TB) since 2023, and also serves on the WHO South-East Asia Regional Technical Advisory Group on TB (R-TAG-TG), The Union TB Undernutrition Working Group, and advisory bodies of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). He is also part of ReLAY (Research to Translate and Yield Evidence into Practice), a track of the FAST-TB (Facilitating Accelerated Science & Translation for TB Regimen Development) initiative.