Proposal for tuberculosis death surveillance in information systems

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Epidemiology
• Infectious Disease Surveillance

Background:

• Tuberculosis remains a significant cause of mortality globally.
• Accurate death surveillance is crucial for effective tuberculosis control programs.
• Existing mortality data systems may have limitations in capturing tuberculosis-related deaths.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a tuberculosis-related death surveillance strategy.
• To leverage the Brazilian Mortality Information System (SIM) for enhanced tuberculosis surveillance.
• To improve the completeness and accuracy of tuberculosis death reporting.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 55 tuberculosis-related deaths from two hospitals in Rio de Janeiro (2005-2006).
• Comparison of deaths recorded in the SIM with the National Notification System (Sinan).
• Evaluation of notification increments, data completeness, entry types, and outcomes in Sinan.

Main Results:

• Only 28 of 55 deaths were initially registered in Sinan.
• The proposed strategy led to 27 new notifications and corrected ten outcomes.
• This resulted in a 28% increase in notifications from the studied hospitals and improved case classification.

Conclusions:

• The tuberculosis death surveillance strategy significantly improved data completeness and reduced under-notification.
• The system enhanced the evaluation of epidemiological surveillance and death certificate quality.
• It facilitated the identification of previously unreported cases and improved contact tracing.