[Evaluation of tuberculosis control actions in a large Brazilian municipality]. / Avaliação de ações de controle da tuberculose em um município brasileiro de grande porte.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate tuberculosis control actions in one large Brazilian municipality. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Quantitative, cross-sectional study, with a population (N=137) of patients with tuberculosis notified in the Sistema de Informação de Agravos e Notificação (Brazilian Case Registry Database). The final sample (n = 75) was obtained based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. The studied variables were: "health center in charge of diagnosing tuberculosis", "time elapsed since the onset of signs and symptoms until diagnosis of tuberculosis", "health center in charge of providing treatment of tuberculosis" and "type of tuberculosis treatment". Data were collected between March and July of 2015, and were obtained from structured interviews and analyzed through descriptive and analytic statistics by Chi square test method, using the R software. CONCLUSION: The study identified that tuberculosis control actions are focused on specialized services and the private network, which contributes to a late diagnosis, and hinder the interruption of disease transmission. Self-administered treatment was also observed, modality that favors the antagonistic outcome of the treatment.

Incidence of Leptospirosis infection in the East Zone of Sao Paulo City, Brazil.

BACKGROUND: Leptospirosis is a zoonosis which is spread through contamined running water. This contaminations is seriously affected by the flooding which occurs in the area surrounding the Aricanduva river. The transmission of the disease results mainly from the contact of water with soil contaminated by the urine of infected animals. We aimed to conduct an epidemiological survey on Leptospirosis cases in Sao Paulo East Zone area. METHOD: The analysis conducted in this study was based on data collected from the health authorities of that region close the Aricanduva river between 2007 and 2008 years, which give the rates of confirmed cases, mortality and death from human Leptospirosis. Other information concerned with the relationships among rainfall index, points of flooding and incidence of Leptospirosis. RESULTS: We observed a direct and important water contamination. Records of flooding points and dates of the reported cases in the region showed a direct relationship from which the period of higher rainfall also recorded an increase in cases. The annual record of the city and the region and rainfall regions also presented correlation. CONCLUSION: The association between the indices of flooding and Leptospirosis cases indicates that preventive measures are necessary to avoid exposing the community.