Temporal trend of leprosy in a region of high endemicity in the Brazilian Northeast

Abstract

Objective: to analyze the temporal trend and epidemiological patterns of leprosy indicators in Sobral, a municipality countryside of the state of Ceará, from 2001 to 2016. Method: a time series study based on data from the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System. The time trend analysis was performed using the join point regression model. Results: There were 2,220 new cases of leprosy in Sobral from 2001 to 2016. Of these, 158 (7.2%) in children younger than 15 years of age, the proportion of new male cases was 52.8% (1,162), cases with grade 2 were 7.0% (156), and proportion of cases diagnosed by contact examination 5.7% (126). Final considerations: leprosy remains hyperendemic in adults and children, demonstrating the character of neglected disease. Analysis of the temporal trend allowed to verify that the instability in the detection coefficients, reflect operational problems in the organization of the services

Trends and forecasts of leprosy for a hyperendemic city from Brazil’s northeast: Evidence from an eleven-year time-series analysis

“…Other factors may also explain the higher occurrence of the disease in men, as individual determinants, such as not seeking medical assistance or only later seeking health services, when compared to the practices of women. There are also operational issues concerning difficulties accessing health services in a timely manner due to an incompatibility between the men's and the units' working hours, a lack of a health policies directed to men, and restricted access to health information [15,16].…”

“…Studies addressing the temporal trend of leprosy cases were found in the literature [ 8 , 10 , 16 ], but few studies discuss the disease’s temporal behavior according to sex. A study carried out in the state of Bahia (Northeast region of Brazil) by Souza et al (2018) analyzed temporal trends in terms of sex and verified that the disease behaves differently according to sex: there is a tendency for decreased detection coefficients among women, but detection coefficients remain stable among men, though the results were not statistically significant [ 15 ].…”

Behavior of patients with leprosy in disability prevention through patients’ self care: A literature review

“…From the literature reviews above, it is divided into five sub-findings namely factors related to the incidence of leprosy, stigma about leprosy, the incidence of disability, the practice of self-care for patients, and the behavior of people with leprosy to prevent disability. Factors related to the incidence of leprosy are age, gender, social contact, and care (Pereira et al, 2019), as well as personal hygiene, knowledge, education, occupation, income, and house density (Mallongi et al, 2018).…”

Doenças Negligenciadas

“…Além disso, foi possível verificar a deficiência como condição presente nos casos investigados, ou que pode estar relacionada ao diagnóstico tardio da doença. Nas áreas de risco identificadas, os pacientes relataram piora da incapacidade física após a confirmação diagnóstica, ou indicam exame clínico inadequado, reforçando a necessidade de estruturar os órgãos envolvidos no controle da doença(ASSIS et al, 2020) Pereira et al (2019). realizaram uma análise das características epidemiológicas da hanseníase em Sobral, no Ceará, entre os anos de 2001 e 2016.…”