Fatores associados à hanseníase no município de Buriticupu, Maranhão, Brasil, 2003 a 2015

Abstract

Introduction. Leprosy, originally known as leper, is a chronic infectious disease that has the etiological agent bacillus Mycobacterium leprae, considered to be declining, although it is prevalent in several parts of the world, including Brazil. Objective. To analyze the epidemiological and clinical characteristics and associated factors of leprosy in the city of Buriticupu, Maranhão, Brazil, from 2003 to 2015. Methodology. This is a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study, based on the active search and spontaneous demand of people with leprosy and evolutionary analysis of the indicators. The study considered individuals diagnosed with leprosy from January 2003 to December 2015. To verify the association between the categorical variables, the chi-square test of independence was used, considering a significance level of 5%. Prevalence ratios were calculated in case of significance, with a 95% confidence interval. Results. It was observed that most of the individuals were male (65.9%) and that the most frequent operational classification was multibacillary (55.5%), with a higher association with age equal to or greater than 60 years, the clinical form with. The greatest diagnosis was dimorphism (32.1%), being more common with advancing age. There was an important association of the male with the clinical form virchowian and multibacillary operational classification. During the historical series, there was a decrease in the detection of new cases, accompanied by high reduction rates in all age groups. Conclusion. Throughout the historical series the municipality of Buriticupu advanced a lot in the control of leprosy, presenting important reduction of the coefficient of detection and absolute number of cases in adults and children. New studies should be carried out with the objective of deepening knowledge about the endemic pattern, as well as strengthening actions based on a greater organization of the health services so that the disease ceases to be a public health problem.