Background and objective: An assessment of tuberculosis programmes was carried out in Spain in 1996. The present article looks at trends in tuberculosis control since then.
Material and method: A questionnaire asking about indicators, referred to year 2000, was sent to Spain's 17 autonomous regions, as well as to the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Results were compared with those obtained in 1996.
Results: Improvements, i.e. implementation of more activities, were observed in 77.8% of operative programmes. However, 16.7% of regions have no program yet, while in 27.8% of them, control activities remain scarce. Castilla-León, Catalunya, Ceuta, Madrid, Murcia, Valencia and Galicia were the regions exhibiting more control activities.
Conclusions: Although the trend is positive, many programmes still have a limited effectiveness.