Tuberculosis surveillance and evaluation system in Portugal.

Tuberculosis is an important public health problem in Portugal, so a new and improved computerized programme for the surveillance and evaluation of tuberculosis data was set up to obtain more precise information of relevant epidemiological indices, besides helping clinicians and regional coordinators to evaluate the local situation, such as clinical features, results of treatment and surveillance of failures and abscondings. Data stored on the computer is described in detail. The evolution of the incidence of tuberculosis is presented, together with more detailed figures for 1990. These figures were obtained with the former, cruder process. The present system is now being deployed and checked, after 1 year's trial and evaluation by some of its users. Its results will be presented in a future publication.