A prospective study was conducted on 72 patients of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and 201 healthy controls in a third level hospital. The HRQoL questionnaire (12-Item Short Form Health Survey, SF-12) was used to assess the QoL at the onset of treatment DOTS. Patients with TB had significantly lower mean scores than controls for overall QoL (51.1 +/- SD 22.6) versus 75.9 (+/- SD 17.6), p < 0.0001. The most affected domains were physical and psychological. Active TB patients shown difficulties in activities of daily living and alterations of the psychological state.