History of tuberculosis management in Costa Rica

Abstract

Tuberculosis is one of the first diseases that affected humans, it is considered an infectious disease causing significant morbidity and mortality in the world. The fight against this disease began in our country at the beginning of the 20th century with a sanatorium approach and later with the implementation of different strategies proposed by the World Health Organization to move towards its elimination. The aim of this report is to provide information on the approach to tuberculosis in Costa Rica.

Methods: A descriptive and qualitative study. It included reviews of articles in scientific journals such as Scielo, as well as systematic reviews in: LILACS, PubMed, Cochrane, and a review of the history of data collected in the Epidemiological Surveillance Subarea of ​​the Costa Rican Social Security Fund.

Results: The fight against tuberculosis began in our country in the 20th century, through the launch of the Durán Sanatorium. With the discovery of Koch's bacillus and medications for its treatment, we moved from a sanatorium approach to the implementation of different strategies suggested by the World Health Organization  aimed at strengthening timely diagnosis and treatment, as well as surveillance of tuberculosis /Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) co-infection, drug resistance, latent infection and intensified case finding in vulnerable populations.

Conclusions: The Ministry of health  and the Social Security System of Costa Rica have been supporting the fight against tuberculosis, however, to achieve the goals proposed by the World Health Organization, health authorities are required to continue prioritizing the fight against this disease, providing all the recommended resources and supplies required for timely diagnosis and treatment. Only in this way will we be able to move towards its elimination.