Introduction.

Tuberculosis continues to be a major public health issue, affecting both workers and students of health, who must have adequate and solid knowledge to ensure adequate prevention and control of the disease.

Objective.

To evaluate the knowledge and attitudes on the transmission of tuberculosis in students of dentistry and respiratory therapy.

Methods.

A descriptive study was carried out with 291 students from the dentistry and respiratory therapy programs of a higher education institution in the city of Medellín, who were in clinical practice at the time of the study. They answered a survey based on sociodemographic information, knowledge and attitudes regarding the transmission of tuberculosis. A descriptive and bivariate analysis was carried out.

Results.

57.7% of dentistry students and 42.3% of respiratory therapy students consider that tuberculosis is transmitted by a bacterium, and if cough is considered a transmission mechanism, 89.2% of dentistry students said that it was and 10.8% of the therapy students answered no.

Conclusions.

The majority of the students answered that the etiological factor of tuberculosis is a bacterium and regarding to vaccination, most of them consider it is important for protection.

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