BMJ  2008;336:574 (15 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39514.423090.80

Letters

Joining the DOTS

National "twin study"

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Davies and Squire say it’s too soon to conclude on the efficacy of directly observed treatment short courses (DOTS) for treating tuberculosis.¹

Norway and Sweden are sociodemographically, politically, and culturally comparable. However, the Norwegian tuberculosis control programme fully complies with the DOTS strategy promoted by the World Health Organization and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases, but that in Sweden does not. Most strategies for preventing tuberculosis in the two countries are otherwise comparable to the US and most European countries, so these "twin countries" provide an excellent "case-control model" to study the effect of DOTS nationally.

Transmission of tuberculosis is stable in Norway, despite its import from immigration and increasing incidence.² Immigrants from regions with high rates of tuberculosis bring in different strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, but they do not significantly contribute to the spread of disease in the resident population.

Serious shortcomings have been revealed . . . [Full text of this article]

¹ Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404 Nydalen, 0403 Oslo, Norway

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