TY - JOUR T1 - The association between public transport and active tuberculosis in Lima, Peru JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J SP - 1192 LP - 1195 DO - 10.1183/09031936.00164813 VL - 43 IS - 4 AU - Nathan Woo Furukawa AU - Alberto Mendoza-Ticona AU - Jorge O. Alarcón-Villaverde AU - Harrison Montejo AU - Mark A. Micek AU - Joseph R. Zunt Y1 - 2014/04/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/43/4/1192.abstract N2 - To the Editor:While there have been impressive gains in the global control of tuberculosis (TB) over the past two decades, TB remains a leading cause of death and efforts to decrease its burden have been limited by the rise of drug resistant strains [1]. As drug-resistant TB remains exceedingly difficult and costly to treat, more research is needed to identify areas for improving primary prevention of TB.The risk of TB transmission is increased whenever there is overcrowding, poor ventilation and exposure to an infected individual, and public transport has been identified as a potential setting with increased risk for TB transmission [2]. Indeed, recent research demonstrates the fraction of rebreathed air on public transport is mathematically correlated with a higher risk of contracting TB [3].Previous investigations using cross-sectional data in Lima, Peru, have demonstrated that community, rather than household, transmission may account for up to 70% of incident infections [4]. Studies conducted in Lima found an increased risk of TB infection among individuals who rode minibuses [5] and those who worked on public transport [6]. However, these studies were limited by misclassification of TB diagnosis, imprecise time variables and wide confidence intervals.The objective of our study was to assess the association between use of public transportation and active TB using a detailed transportation questionnaire, multiple control groups and improved TB diagnostics.We used a matched case–control design and enrolled treatment-naïve individuals newly diagnosed with TB on the day of diagnosis from three peripheral health centres in the Lima metropolitan … ER -