Portugal with almost 1,600 cases of tuberculosis in 2023
Portugal recorded 1,584 cases of tuberculosis in 2023. The notification rate is 14.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, with the regions of Lisbon and Tagus Valley and the North to present the largest incidences.
Monday’s data from the Tuberculosis Surveillance and Monitoring Report in Portugal of the Directorate-General for Health (DGS) indicates that of the 1,584 cases of notified tuberculosis, 1,461 were new cases and 123 retractions.
According to the document, released on World Tuberculosis Day, the migrant population remained a population in greater vulnerable situation, with a notification rate 3.6 times higher than the national average (54.3 cases per 100,000 migrants in 2023). There was also an increase in the proportion of cases, compared to 2022 (35.8% in 2023 and 30% in 2022).
The region of Lisbon and Vale do Tagus and the Northern Region remained the two regions of highest incidence, with 18.2 and 16 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants, respectively, stresses the report.
« There were 76 deaths, which corresponds to a lethality of 4.8% in all reported cases, and cases of deaths are associated with other comorbidities and also with an age group of over 75 years, » the DGS National Tuberculosis Program (PNT) director (PNT) told Lusa.
Isabel Carvalho also pointed out that it is a disease that continues to predominate in men, corresponding to 68.3% of reported cases. The most frequent form of the disease remains pulmonary (70.8% in 2023), with higher contagiousness, which 51.4% of these pulmonary cases were contagious.
The director argued to be « very important that in pulmonary forms the treatment begins early to control this contagion and bring a benefit to the patient. »
The notification rate of tuberculosis remained in 14.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants by 2023, identical to 2022, stable since the years of the Covid-19 pandemic. « What we wanted is that if it continued to have a rate reduction, this was not achieved later this year, which means we really need to adjust the strategies, » said Isabel Carvalho.
The numbers also show that Portugal recorded, in 2023, 22 cases of multi -resistant tuberculosis, double the previous year, most in Lisbon and Tagus Valley. Fifteen cases (68.2%) occurred in migrants and 31.8% in people born in Portugal, the tuberculosis surveillance and monitoring report in Portugal says.
According to the document, in five cases with multi -resistant tuberculosis (22.7% compared to 33.3% in 2022) the history of prior tuberculosis treatment is recorded. None of the cases had coinfection by HIV.
Although in Portugal most cases of tuberculosis occur in the population born in Portugal, the proportion of cases in migrants has had a growing tendency, representing 35.8% of the 1,584 cases notified in 2023.
Isabel Carvalho explained that « most immigrants, albeit infected, are very poor likely to develop tuberculosis. »
According to Isabel Carvalho, tuberculosis remains of the most relevant infectious diseases in the world scenario, as well as in Portugal, “for their impact and frequency” in terms of these diseases.
