Clinical epidemiological profile of leprosy in children under 15 years in the city of Juazeiro-BA

• Main Authors: Igara Cavalcanti Feitosa Luna, Luiza Taciana Rodrigues de Moura, Michelle Christini Araújo Vieira
• Format: Article
• Language: Portuguese
• Published: Universidade de Fortaleza 2014-04-01
• Series: Revista Brasileira em Promoção da Saúde
• Subjects: Hanseníase; Criança; Epidemiologia Descritiva.
• Online Access: http://ojs.unifor.br/index.php/RBPS/article/view/2906

Objective: To describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of new cases of leprosy in people aged under 15 years, reported to the Municipal Department of Health (Secretaria Municipal de Saúde - SMS) of Juazeiro-BA, in the period from 2001 to 2010. Methods: This is a quantitative study, of exploratory and descriptive nature, performed through the analysis of data contained in the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação - SINAN), in municipal level. Results: The results showed that 145 (7.94%) new cases of leprosy affected people under 15 years. High detection rates were verified for this age group, with predominance in females (n=81; 55.86%) and greater occurrence in the age group from 10 to 14 years (n=85; 58.62%). The paucibacillary forms (n=107; 74.48%) have predominated over the multibacillary forms of the disease (n=37; 25.52%), being the tuberculoid clinical form (n=80; 55.17%) the most prevalent one. The disabilities reached 18 (12.41%) of the surveyed patients at the diagnosis time and 15 (10.34%) at the hospital discharge time. Many of the cases (n=58; 40.07%) were not assessed or were ignored. Conclusion: The clinical and epidemiological profile of the occurrence of new cases of leprosy in Juazeiro-BA showed that both the overall detection coefficients of leprosy as those for people aged under 15 years remained at hyperendemic levels during the surveyed period. doi:10.5020/18061230.2013.p208