Caracterização epidemiológica da hanseníase no estado de Mato Grosso do Sul

Abstract

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease, transmitted from person to person, with transmission between humans being considered the main way to contract the disease. It remains a public health problem in Brazil, and the Midwestern region, where the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (MS) is located, is one of the most affected. The objective of this research was to describe the epidemiological profile of leprosy in the state of MS. The descriptive study was elaborated with data collected in the Information System of Notification Diseases (SINAN), serving as a sample all patients included in system reported as positive for leprosy in MS, between 2001 and 2015. In this period, MS reported 1.71% of the cases in Brazil. The incidence rate of this population exhibited a small variation from 26.76% in 2001 to 35.21% in 2012, with a 24% increase in the average of new cases detection rate (NCD) of the disease. It was observed that the north of the state had the highest rates of general and multibacillary incidence (MB). Regarding the number of confirmed cases in the frontier region of the MS state, it was verified that the border incidence rates are significantly lower than the other cities analyzed. Male was the most gender affected (56.7%), with a predominance of the age group of 20 to 59 years (70.52%). In this way, we can conclude that the large number of multibacillary patients indicates that leprosy diagnoses are occurring late, perhaps due to difficulties in the diagnostic methodology, lack of access to more accurate methods and to the unprepared basic health care network, remaining like a very blunt disease even today.