Research Article
Control measures to trace ≤ 15-year-old contacts of index cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis
Cláudia Di Lorenzo Oliveira, Angelita Cristine de Melo, Lílian Ruth Silva de Oliveira, Emerson Lopes Froede, Paulo Camargos
Published:
DOI:
10.1590/S1806-37132015000000073
License:
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License
Abstract
This was descriptive study carried out in a medium-sized Brazilian city. In ≤ 15-year-old contacts of index cases of active pulmonary tuberculosis, we assessed compliance with the Brazilian national guidelines for tuberculosis control. We interviewed 43 contacts and their legal guardians. Approximately 80% of the contacts were not assessed by the municipal public health care system, and only 21% underwent tuberculin skin testing. The results obtained with the Chi-square Automatic Interaction Detector method suggest that health care teams have a biased attitude toward assessing such contacts and underscore the need for training health professionals regarding tuberculosis control programs.