[Tuberculosis and public health: ¿individual rights or collective rights?]. / Tuberculosis y salud pública: ¿derechos individuales o derechos colectivos?

Tuberculosis (TB) persists as a major public health problem in our country. The appearance of resistant strains has complicated its control and questioned the appropriateness of the current measures towards prevention and control. An analysis from social determinants related to TB, converge on irregular treatment that generates disease persistence and appearance of resistance to TB drugs. The objective of this paper is to identify the role of the government in the treatment of TB patients, to recognize difficulties of treatment adherence considering that its fulfillment depends on the patient, despite that it has direct consequences on public health, and to discuss TB management alternatives with an approach based on individual and collective human rights. International literature shows limit experiences of individual rights and collective ones, but based on health policies and health legislation. In Peru, a new approach is required to guarantee population health without infringing individual rights.

Tuberculosis y salud pública: ¿derechos individuales o derechos colectivos? / Tuberculosis and public health: ¿individual rights or collective rights?

La tuberculosis (TB) persiste como un problema de salud pública de grandes dimensiones en el Perú. La aparición de cepas fármaco-resistentes ha dificultado su control y puesto en cuestionamiento las medidas que actualmente se toman para la prevención y control. Un análisis desde los "determinantes sociales" relacionados con TB, confluyen hacia un tratamiento irregular, lo que ocasiona su persistencia y desarrollo de fármaco-resistencia. El objetivo es identificar el rol del Estado en el tratamiento de pacientes con TB; reconocer las dificultades del paciente en el cumplimiento del tratamiento, lo cual repercute en la salud colectiva; y discutir sus alternativas de manejo, basados en los derechos del paciente y la sociedad. La literatura internacional muestra experiencias límite entre los derechos individuales y colectivos, pero respaldado por políticas sanitarias y su legislación. En el Perú se requiere una nueva mirada que garantice la salud de la población sin vulnerar los derechos individuales.

Tuberculosis (TB) persists as a major public health problem in our country. The appearance of resistant strains has complicated its control and questioned the appropriateness of the current measures towards prevention and control. An analysis from social determinants related to TB, converge on irregular treatment that generates disease persistence and appearance of resistance to TB drugs. The objective of this paper is to identify the role of the government in the treatment of TB patients, to recognize difficulties of treatment adherence considering that its fulfillment depends on the patient, despite that it has direct consequences on public health, and to discuss TB management alternatives with an approach based on individual and collective human rights. International literature shows limit experiences of individual rights and collective ones, but based on health policies and health legislation. In Peru, a new approach is required to guarantee population health without infringing individual rights.

Accounting for autocorrelation in multi-drug resistant tuberculosis predictors using a set of parsimonious orthogonal eigenvectors aggregated in geographic space.

Spatial autocorrelation is problematic for classical hierarchical cluster detection tests commonly used in multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) analyses as considerable random error can occur. Therefore, when MDRTB clusters are spatially autocorrelated the assumption that the clusters are independently random is invalid. In this research, a product moment correlation coefficient (i.e., the Moran's coefficient) was used to quantify local spatial variation in multiple clinical and environmental predictor variables sampled in San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima, Peru. Initially, QuickBird 0.61 m data, encompassing visible bands and the near infra-red bands, were selected to synthesize images of land cover attributes of the study site. Data of residential addresses of individual patients with smear-positive MDR-TB were geocoded, prevalence rates calculated and then digitally overlaid onto the satellite data within a 2 km buffer of 31 georeferenced health centers, using a 10 m2 grid-based algorithm. Geographical information system (GIS)-gridded measurements of each health center were generated based on preliminary base maps of the georeferenced data aggregated to block groups and census tracts within each buffered area. A three-dimensional model of the study site was constructed based on a digital elevation model (DEM) to determine terrain covariates associated with the sampled MDR-TB covariates. Pearson's correlation was used to evaluate the linear relationship between the DEM and the sampled MDR-TB data. A SAS/GIS(R) module was then used to calculate univariate statistics and to perform linear and non-linear regression analyses using the sampled predictor variables. The estimates generated from a global autocorrelation analyses were then spatially decomposed into empirical orthogonal bases using a negative binomial regression with a non-homogeneous mean. Results of the DEM analyses indicated a statistically non-significant, linear relationship between georeferenced health centers and the sampled covariate elevation. The data exhibited positive spatial autocorrelation and the decomposition of Moran's coefficient into uncorrelated, orthogonal map pattern components revealed global spatial heterogeneities necessary to capture latent autocorrelation in the MDR-TB model. It was thus shown that Poisson regression analyses and spatial eigenvector mapping can elucidate the mechanics of MDR-TB transmission by prioritizing clinical and environmental-sampled predictor variables for identifying high risk populations.