Objective To timely detect the patients with active tuberculosis and decrease the false negative rate in order to reduce the possibility of spread and outbreaks of infectious diseases. Methods The suspected cases which were screened out by the real-time surveillance system for infectious diseases were diagnosed by clinicians as active tuberculosis or not. Results From June 2014 to May 2015, there were 48 cases reported as active tuberculosis by the traditional manual passive monitoring mode, and 67 cases by the real-time surveillance system. The traditional mode had 19 patients reported as false negative, with a false negative rate of 28.36%. What’s more, compared to the 41 cases reported by the traditional mode from June 2013 to May 2014, the real-time system reported 26 cases more during the period from June 2014 to May 2015. Conclusion The real-time surveillance system for infectious diseases improves the sensitivity, accuracy and timeliness for report of active tuberculosis, and is of very important significance in prevention from the spread of infectious disease.