Evaluación del estudio de contactos de tuberculosis: Servicio de Salud Metropolitano Occidente. 1994-2008

Abstract

The evaluation of 15 years of study of TB contacts done in the western area of the Public Health Service of Santiago de Chile, 1994-2008, is presented. During this period an improvement on the coverage of this studies -even beyond the Ministry of Health aims- was observed. For this purpose the retrospective analysis of cases incorporated during the period was used. For definitions of healthy or diseased contact we followed the Manual of Tuberculosis of the National Tuberculosis Control Program of Chile. 9,344 intra-domicilliary and extra-domicilliary contacts were analized out of 2,129 index cases of bacillary TB and index cases of children with TB. The coverage, morbility, diagnosis of TB and chemoprophylaxis carried out were evaluated. The study of contacts is probably the activity of case finding of the Program of Control ofTuberculosis most useful. In children under 15 years-old allows to find recent infections and treat them with chemoprophylaxis to avoid the development of new patients and the maintenance of the chain of transmission of the disease.