[Tuberculosis risk assessment in the staff of the National University Pneumologic Hospital of Havana].

Introduction: tuberculosis is traditionally considered as a professional disease in health care workers.

Objective: to evaluate the individual and collective tuberculosis infection risk by areas or departments in the National University Pneumologiic Hospital of Havana, Cuba.

Methods: the individual risk was assessed during 2008-2009 by means of a survey administered to the staff that includes personal data, labor location and exposition to M.

[An alternative for improving the diagnosis of smear-negative tuberculosis and other bronchopulmonary disorders in Cuba].

Objective: The diagnosis of tuberculosis in patients with negative acid-fast bacillus smears poses a challenge to both clinicians and public health authorities. In an attempt to aid diagnosis in such cases, an expert committee was established in Ciudad de La Habana, Cuba in 1995. The aim of this study was to describe the progress of the committee's work and the corresponding results for the period 1996 through 2003.

[Tuberculin reactivity among ninth-grade schoolchildren in the city of Havana, Cuba].

Objective: To determine the proportion of 14-year-old schoolchildren in the city of Havana, Cuba, with a positive tuberculin skin test, as an indicator of the prevalence of tuberculosis infection among them.

Methods: Using single-stage cluster sampling, 1 936 Mantoux (tuberculin) tests were carried out with ninth-grade students (cohort born in 1985) during the 1999- 2000 school year in 20 basic high schools randomly selected in Havana. The tests were performed according to the standard technique recommended by the World Health Organization, and they were read after 72 hours.

[Tuberculosis in Havana City, 1995-1999].

Objective: Tuberculosis is a worldwide health problem getting a prioritized attention by the Cuban National Health System. To describe the main indicators of the Cuban Tuberculosis Control Program.

Methods: Based on surveillance data from the Provincial Center of Hygiene and Epidemiology, the health care network and strategies of the tuberculosis control program were reviewed; incidence rates, case finding indicators, diagnosis and case management were described.