Characterization of tuberculosis in Guantanamo province, 2012-2019

Abstract

Introduction: facing tuberculosis is a social and professional responsibility that requires characterization of the disease, not quite achieved in Guantanamo in the last decade. Objective: to characterize tuberculosis in patients in the province of Guantanamo in the period from 2012 to 2019. Method: the research population was the total of patients diagnosed with the disease (n=136). The following variables were taken into account: age, gender, location of the infection, results on the smear microscopy, categorization of the patient at the time of discharge and the risk groups for tuberculosis. The information was gathered through the records on the every year list of notifiable diseases, and epidemiologic surveys in the areas of infection, and it was summed up in absolute values and percentage. Results: in the 80.1 % of the cases of tuberculosis, the infection was located in the lungs, and the diagnose by positive smear microscopy (63.2 %) was more common. The 76.7 % of the patients with a positive smear microscopy were male. The most common risk groups for tuberculosis were: smokers (26.4 %), immunosuppressed patients (21.6 %) and alcoholism (19.1 %). Conclusions: In Guantanamo province, the lung-located tuberculosis prevails; and also the patients with a positive smear microscopy. Patients are mostly male, with ages ranging from 45 to 54 years old, all of them with a recent diagnosis. The disease has a greater incidence rate on those with an immunosuppression, smoking or alcoholism background.

Keywords

• tuberculosis
• bacteriología
• grupos de riesgo