Objective: To identify the indigenous inhabitants affected by tuberculosis (TB) in Peru during the year 2008.
Material and methods: Descriptive observational study, performed from August to December 2009, including all indigenous patients affected by tuberculosis that were including in the Control Program during the year 2008 in the 25 regions of Peru.
Results: We identified 702 indigenous patients with tuberculosis. The ethnical groups that have most patients were the Quechua group (417/702; 59.4%) and the Amazonic indigenous (201/702, 28.6%). Out of the Amazonic, more than 60% belonged to the Ashaninka (Campas), Shipibo and Matsiguenga groups. In third place, we found the Aymara natives, who had 84/702 (11.97%) of cases of tuberculosis. It is important to mention that the distribution of the cases of multidrugresistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) involves five departments (nine cases of MDR TB), being the greater number of cases of MDR TB in patients previously treated (6/9), and only 3 cases were primary MDR TB, belonging to the quechua group.
Conclusions: High incidence rates of tuberculosis in indigenous population have been found, which raises the need of further research in order to guarantee the correct gathering of information in ethnic groups in order to have more and better evidence about the situation of tuberculosis in the indigenous population of Peru.