Cure rates for tuberculosis in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2012 compared with coverage by, and time of establishment of, Family Health units, and socio-economic and demographic factors.

Tuberculosis (TB) has high prevalence and is considered a world emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO), being the greatest cause of death from infectious diseases in adults. It is directly associated with access to health services and socio-economic factors. A reform of Primary Care in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro began in 2010, with coverage increasing from 7% in that year to 48.2% in 2014. This article compares the proportion of cures of TB, coverage by the Family Health Strategy (FHS), how long it has been in place, and socio-economic and demographic factors in the municipality of Rio, based on new cases notified in the year 2012. An association was found between cure of TB and the variable gender, being 40% greater in females - odds ratio 1.4 (CI95% 1.21-1.62); and with residence in favelas - OR 0.86 (CI95% 0.73-1.02), but there was no association with coverage of the FHS (OR 1.06; CI95% 0.92-1.22), nor with the time for which the teams had been in place. FHS coverage in the municipality of Rio was put in place as priority in areas of greater vulnerability; at the time of this study, more than 91% of the teams had been in place for less than five years before the date of diagnosis. These factors probably contributed to it not being possible to detect better results in the cure of tuberculosis in areas covered by the FHS in the year 2012.