Diagnóstico baciloscópico de tuberculosis pulmonar en muestras de esputo realizadas en el área de salud No 2 de Loja durante el año 2007, y primer trimestre del año 2008

Abstract

Abstract: Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by the bacillus Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTb). This is an old disease in terms of its historical documentation (Enarson, et al, 1999), and is one of the main causes of illness and death worldwide. In addition, this disease is still a public health problem because it is estimated that one third of the world population is infected by M. Tuberculosis. (Sdre, et al., 1991) Despite being a well-known and curable disease, it has not yet been eradicated because it is associated with current risk factors such as poverty, underdevelopment and the HIV-AIDS pandemic. Likewise (Bozzo, et al, 2007), its control has become more difficult due to the resistance to medicines used to treat tuberculosis, since several types of antibiotics are required during at least six months, which causes a high level of failure. This situation favors the occurrence of clinical strains that are resistant to one or more drugs. (Espinal, et al., 2000) The detection of acid-alcohol resistant bacilli in a colored sample is the first bacteriological evidence of the presence of mycobacteriae in cases where tuberculosis is suspected. However, this fact cannot be considered as a synonym for tuberculosis since it can indicate, not only the presence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but the presence of non-tuberculous mycobacteriae and even the presence of other germs with acid-fast staining properties, such as the Nocardia spp. (Laniado-Laborín, et al., 2005) The samples of patients with a clinical probability of pulmonary tuberculosis were studied between 2007 and March 2008, in people older than 15 years of age from both genres, at the Health Area #2 Hugo Guillermo González in Loja. The patients studied were 212 respiratory symptomatic, on whom 628 bacilloscopies for diagnosis in sputum samples were performed.