[Profile of new cases of tuberculosis in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State, in the period of 2000 to 2006].

The World Health Organization estimates that one third of the world population is infected by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, while 8-9 million of people develop the disease and 2 million die each year due to tuberculosis, especially in countries and regions with precarious socioeconomic conditions. This study describes the profile of new cases of Tuberculosis notified in Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo State, in the period between 2000 and 2006. A cohort descriptive design was used. The database Epi-Tb was used for the data collection. The clinical form predominant was pulmonary. It was verified that 71.7% of patients were male and young adults (20-39 years). Regarding the type of supervision, it was observed that the supervised form presented a progressive increase along the period considered, with exception of 2003. The Tb/HIV co-infection was superior to 25%, while 12.9% of the patients performed the test. Regarding the treatment result, cure varied from 62.7% to 76.7%, the abandonment mean was 4.3% and death by tuberculosis was 3.9%. The results presented contribute for the knowledge of the tuberculosis epidemiological situation along the years studied, providing support to decision making related to prevention actions and control of the disease in the municipality.