Three quarters of the 8.9 million cases of infectious tuberculosis (TB) diagnosed in the world are in developing countries. While the disease is curable, two million people die of it each year. Problems of diagnosis and treatment relate more to access to services and money for drugs than to anything else. TB is endemic to both rural and urban areas of Guerrero, one of Mexico’s poorest States. CIETmexico provides training in TB diagnosis to medical graduates performing community service (pasantes) and also to voluntary health promoters from the communities. TB has also been a focus of CIETmexico’s programme of research in molecular epidemiology.

Highlights of this work can be found in the following summaries:

–Active tuberculosis surveillance in rural communities, 1987-1990

-Risk factors associated with recent transmission of TB:  a systematic review and meta-analysis, 1994-2005

-Risk factors associated with chronic coughing among indigenous and mestizo populations of Guerrero State, 2003

-Tuberculosis in Acapulco: a colonial legacy, 2007

Further details about the last three of these projects can be obtained from the doctoral thesis of Elizabeth Nava Aguilera, Epidemiología molecular de tuberculosis pulmonar: Factores de riesgo asociados a transmisión reciente de Mycobacterium tuberculosis en Guerrero, México, available from the library. 

See also: Nava-Aguilera E, Andersson N, Harris E, Mitchell S, Hamel C, Shea B, López-Vidal Y, Villegas-Arrizón A, Morales-Pérez A. Risk factors associated with recent transmission of tuberculosis: systematic review and meta-analysis. The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease 2009;13(1): 17-26. Available to institutions and personal subscribers at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iuatld/ijtld/2009/00000013/00000001/art00005