Uso de los registros de mortalidad para la vigilancia epidemiológica del programa de tuberculosis en Chile

Abstract

Tuberculosis remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide and one of the challenges is to close the gap between reported and estimated cases. Currently, nominal registries allow the integration of different sources to improve the capture of information. The purpose of this study was to search for possible cases of tuberculosis that are not contained in the national registry of the program by linking data with mortality registries. Methodology: The tuberculosis registry data were linked to the morta- lity data of the Department of Health Statistics and Information, Ministry of Health, Chile for 2018 to 2022, first through the National Identification Number and then manually by name for unpaired cases. Results: 25.4% of the cases of deaths from tuberculosis in the mortality registries were not registered by the tuberculosis program as cases. These are cases without bacteriological confirmation and mostly pulmonary tuberculosis. Discussion: The findings demonstrate that a series of actions established by Chilean national regulation are not being carried out. Tuberculosis is not being notified correctly, nor are deaths being followed up by the intermediate levels of the tuberculosis program. Furthermore, the cause of death indicated on death certificates is subject to inconsistencies. Conclusion: Mortality records are a valuable source for identifying unreported TB cases in Chile, but data collection, case reporting, and auditing processes need to be improved to reduce the observed inconsistencies.