[Coverage of directly observed treatment (DOTS) of tuberculosis in the state of São Paulo (1998-2004)].

The Supervised Treatment (ST) in the 36 priority municipalities for TB control of the State of São Paulo between 1998 and 2004 was analyzed with the aim of describing the coverage of the DOTS. This exploratory study used information from the State of São Paulo's Health Secretary's EPI-TB database. An instrument of data collection was elaborated and the coverage of the ST was calculated. The data was put in the Excel program. In the municipalities that implemented the ST in 1998, coverage was under 20%. In 1999 half of the municipalities had coverage between 11% and 49%. In 2000, the implementation was 100%, but the maximum coverage was 61%. Between 2001 and 2002 the coverage increased in 69.44% of the municipalities. In 2003, coverage was below of 50% in 22 municipalities. In 2004 there was a trend to increasing coverage in 63.89% of the municipalities.