Risk factors to non-compliance with TB treatment.

Tuberculosis (TB),at present declared as a world emergency, faces a very importantobstacle for their control which is the abandonment of treatment. It′salso called “no compliance”, no adherence, or, simply, the “patientmisses his medication”. This has a serious consequences as forthe sick person,as wells as for the community, because the patientis not treated and the transmission chain continues; in addition,the bacteria may develops resistance to current medications. Thiswill Increases treatment costs, as well as, patient morbidity andmortality. The abandonment rates in the world are reported, being,among 0 to 85%. For 1995, WHO reported a general proportion ofabandonment for the Americas, being of 6%;. In Colombia, we have aregistered 24% of abandonment between the years of 1982 to 1983and 10% among 1988 to 1989. These rates are above the WHO′sexpectations which are less than 5%. The abandonment associatedwith high incidence becomes a problem for public health of such asbig dimensions. In this article we discuss the epidemiology of noncompliance, the risk factors related with the patient, the patient’streatment, the social environment and the health services.