Contributions of the health professional in treatment of tuberculosis and factors that influence abandonment in medicinal therapy

Abstract

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that has been occurring in Brazil since the time of colonization and which continues to be a serious public health problem. The drugs used to treat tuberculosis are safe and effective, but there is still a high level of abandonment of drug treatment. In view of this, the present study aimed to carry out a systematic review of the literature on the treatment of pulmonary and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and to investigate the factors that prevent the continuation of drug therapy. This is a descriptive study that addresses the treatment of tuberculosis and factors related to the abandonment of drug therapy. To this end, a bibliographic survey was carried out in the electronic database SCIELO, using the following descriptors: abandonment, treatment and tuberculosis. In this search, 100 studies were found, published between 2000 and 2017, and after reading the title and summary, 12 articles were selected because they have greater relevance and affinity with the topic addressed. The analyzed studies suggest that the directly observed treatment performed by a health professional in the act of dispensing medications contributes significantly to the follow-up and compromise of the treatment in search of favoring the cure in the patients affected by this disease.