Introduction:

Tuberculosis is co-endemic in areas with a high prevalence of intestinal parasites. It has been suggested that intestinal parasitosis by helminths may trigger progression to the active pulmonary form in patients with latent tuberculosis, although this correlation is controversial.

Objective:

To perform a review of the literature regarding the correlation between intestinal parasites and infection by Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Materials and methods:

A literature search was carried out in the ProQuest, EBSCO, ScienceDirect, Pubmed, LILACS, Embase, Trip Database, SciELO and Cochrane Library databases of the terms: [Tuberculosis] AND [Intestinal diseases, parasitic] AND [Helminths]; [Tuberculosis] AND [Intestinal diseases, parasitic]; [Tuberculosis] AND [Helminths], both in English and in Spanish. This search was limited to systematic reviews with or without meta-analysis, cohort studies and case-control studies.

Results:

One systematic review, 2 cohort studies and 44 case-control studies with relevant information were found for this review.

Conclusions:

The available evidence was insufficient to affirm that intestinal parasites predispose to developing tuberculous. The studies carried out so far have found statistically insignificant results.

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