A importância das ações programáticas de saúde no controle da tuberculose: experiência de um serviço de atenção primária à saúde em Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

INTRODUCTION: Tuberculosis deserves special attention from health professionals and society. However, health services are not organized to attend these patients, and the prevalence of the disease remains high in the country. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate the role of primary care in improving tuberculosis indicators with structured programmatic actions. METHODS: Data from patients diagnosed with tuberculosis linked to the Primary Health Care Service of the Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, attended in the health care services of the city, were analyzed and compared before (2002-2008) and after (2009-2012) the implementation of a Tuberculosis Control Program. The indicators were analyzed based on the goals established by WHO. RESULTS: One hundred and forty patients had tuberculosis between 2002 and 2012, 94 before the implementation of the Program and 46 after. With the Program, the annual number of tracked respiratory symptomatic patients and patients diagnosed with tuberculosis increased. Also, the diagnosis of tuberculosis in primary care services increased from 4.3% (n = 4) to 39.1% (n = 18) (p < 0.001); and there was an improvement in cure (78.2% to 85.7%) and therapy dropout (9.3% to 9.1%) rates. CONCLUSION: Our study showed that, after implementation of the Tuberculosis Control Program in the Primary Health Care Service of the Hospital de Clinicas de Porto Alegre, there was improvement in diagnosis of the disease, cure and treatment dropout rates, which have reached the cure rate goal established by the Ministry of Health.