[Incidence of tuberculosis in Spain: results of the Multicenter Project of Tuberculosis Research (MPTR). Work Group of the MPTR].
BACKGROUND
The objective of this project was to gain a better understanding of the incidence of all forms of tuberculosis and to describe the clinical-epidemiological characteristics of tuberculosis cases in Spain.


METHODS
After active search through 14 registers, we identified cases of tuberculosis within 13 Spanish Autonomous Communities with populations that represented almost 67% of the total population of Spain. The study period was between May 1996-April 1997.


RESULTS
The global incidence of all forms of tuberculosis was 38.51 cases per 100,000 inhabitants with some variations between the communities (range: 16.20/100,000-70.75/100,000). A positive smear in the sputum was discovered for 36% of all cases and 49.3% of the cases of pulmonary or miliary tuberculosis. This represented a incidence rate of 13.83 per 100,000 inhabitants (range 4.55/100,000-28.10/100,000). Men presented higher rates of incidence than women (52.70/100,000 versus 24.87/100,000). Concerning age groups, 25-34 years and 75 or more years were the most affected (61.35/100,000 and 59.35/100,000, respectively)). The most frequent sites of the disease were pulmonary, pleural and lymphatic (69.7%, 11.2% and 8.8% respectively) followed by disseminated forms (6.6%). Tuberculosis patients infected with HIV represented 17.7% of the study (range: 7%-27.2%) resulting in a incidence rate of AIDS/tuberculosis of 6.80 per 100,000 inhabitants (range: 2.33/100,000-8.23/100,000).


CONCLUSIONS
The results of the Multicentric Project for Tuberculosis Research (MPTR) confirm the importance of tuberculosis in Spain and shows an important interaction between tuberculosis and HIV.
D017088:AIDS-Related Opportunistic Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014391:Tuberculosis, Miliary / Q000453:epidemiology; D014397:Tuberculosis, Pulmonary / Q000453:epidemiology