SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF TUBERCULOSIS IN A MIDSIZE BRAZILIAN TOWN

INTRODUCTION:   The health-disease process involves several factors, including the geographical space where people live and about which some collective actions for control and prevention were done. It is well known that the occurrence of tuberculosis (TB) is linked to both, the socio-demographic factors and the physical environment. The objective of this work was to assess the spatial distribution of TB in Divinópolis, a midsize (Southeastern) Brazil town, from 2002 to 2012. METHODS: All new reported TB cases were included in the SINAN, the Brazilian System for notifiable diseases. The spatial distribution of cases was done according to the home address contained in that database. The latitudes and longitudes, in the coordinate system UTM were identified by Google Earth™ and the ArcGIS 10.1 software. All geocoded cases were located according to the Brazilian 2010 census data. We used censitary information to calculate the crude incidence rates.  RESULTS: 326 cases were reported and we was able to map 309 (94.7%) of them. The disease occurred predominantly (99.3%) in the urban area. There was a predominance of males (67.8%) and individuals aged 15-39 years old (≈ 40%). Case distribution ranged from zero to 6 individuals per census sector area and were concentrated in the town central area. The crude incidence rate by sector ranged from 0.06% to 1.1%. Among the 295 existing sectors, 163 (55.2%) had at least one case of TB during the period of study, indicating a wide geographical distribution of cases. 30% of the household head earned less than one Brazilian minimum wage/month (US$280,00), demonstrating a low socioeconomic status of the studied population.  CONCLUSIONS: The disease is spatially distributed throughout the urban area, without a sharp cluster specific of area, but with both a light inter-urban aggregation, and with higher number of cases in some sectors.