Abstract: Objective  To understand the characteristics of various surveillance systems in TB mortality evaluation and their pros and cons in TB mortality surveillance.   Methods  Using the descriptive method, three national disease surveillance systems including National Disease Surveillance Points System(DSPs), Disease Surveillance Information Management System(DSIMs), and Tuberculosis Management Information System(TBMIs) were compared and analyzed with the monioring purpose, covering population, data collecting, death judgement, ultilization of the data, and data quality control. Meantime, the TB mortality surveillance data in 2008 were compared between DSPs and TBMIs, and the TB death cases collected in two typical surveyed counties by DSPs and TBMIs were also compared.   Results  DSPs is a vital registration system with the purpose of death cause monitoring, and it is superior to other systems in TB mortality surveillance. The typical analysis showed that the number of TB deaths registered in DSPs, DSIMs and TBMIs in 2008 in Dongcheng district of Beijing were 9, 1, and 0 respectively, and 10, 2 and 2 respectively in Fuxin county of Liaoning. The registration number in DSPs were all higher than the other two systems.   Conclusion  The TB mortality data in DSPs could be used for analyze the characteristics and the trend of TB death.

Key words: Tuberculosis/mortality, Population surveillance, Registries, Evaluation studies