Tuberculose em município de porte médio do Sudeste do Brasil: indicadores de morbidade e mortalidade, de 1985 a 2003

background: tuberculosis is a disease linked to poverty, unequal distribution of wealth, and urbanization, as well as the epidemics of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome epidemic and multidrug resistance. objective: to analyze indicators of tuberculosis morbidity and mortality in the city of s？o josé do rio preto, brazil from 1985 to 2003, compared with those in the state of s？o paulo and in brazil at large, and to determine the relationship between the risk of occurrence and socioeconomic level. method: the following official information systems were utilized: the sistema de informa？？o de mortalidade (sim, mortality database), the notifica？？o de tuberculose (epi-tb, tuberculosis notification database), the sistema de informa？？o de agravos de notifica？？o (sinan, case-registry database), the departamento de informa？？o e informática do sistema único de saúde (datasus, information department of the brazilian health ministry) and the instituto brasileiro de geografia e estatística (ibge, brazilian institute of geography and statistics database). new cases reported in 2003 in the urban area were georeferenced and analyzed. a map of the sectors, each classified as representing one of three socioeconomic classes, was drawn up, showing the respective tuberculosis incidence coefficients. results: comparing brazil as a whole to the state of s？o paulo, total incidence coefficients and mortality rates were similar, as were gender-related values. in the city of s？o josé do rio preto the rates were consistently lower. the proportion of cases presenting tuberculosis/human immunodeficiency virus coinfection varied from 29% to 37%. in 2002, 59% and 65% of tuberculosis-only and coinfected tuberculosis patients, respectively, were under supervised treatment, with a cure rate of 81% and a treatment-abandonment rate of 1%. the risk of developing active tuberculosis was three times higher in the area presenting the lowest socioeconomic levels. conclusion: identification of the areas with