By using Tajikistan as a case, this study adopted a qualitative approach to understand the
different dimensions which make households of migrants with tuberculosis vulnerable to food
insecurity. A vulnerability framework was used to identify the risks that tuberculosis poses on
households’ availability, accessibility and utilization of food. Then, these risks were analysed in
relation to the coping strategies that households employ in order to reduce harm. Data were
collected through semi-structured interviews, and observations. Findings highlighted that TB
negatively impacts food accessibility, by affecting income-generating activities, labour
productivity, and overall expenditure. On the other hand, it affects food utilization, by decreasing
patients’ capacity to absorb nourishment and increasing their nutritional requirements. As a
result, the gap between nutritional intake required, and household’s ability to access food
becomes wider. Households manage the risks posed by tuberculosis by selecting different coping
strategies such as borrowing from relatives in migration, taking loans, reducing their
expenditures and food consumption, start working, diversify their income, and selling productive
assets. As the treatment prolongs, the coping mechanisms employed become more detrimental,
compromising their resources. In the long term, the combined effect of being continuously
exposed to TB risks, and the negative consequences of the coping mechanisms employed
endangers both household’s livelihoods and their food security