Epidemiological and clinical profile of leprosy patients in the municipality of Mossoró from 2015 to 2021

Abstract

Leprosy is an infectious-contagious disease of compulsory notification, chronic and millennial, with a predilection for the nervous periphery, skin and Schwann cells, and carries a strong social component, with the incidence and prevalence of this disease persisting today. National treatment is free, but the presence of this pathology is unevenly distributed in Brazil, with the occurrence of geographic spaces considered hyperendemic, such as the municipality of Mossoró/RN, the locus of the study. The objective of this study was to analyze the epidemiological and clinical profile of leprosy cases in this municipality. This was a retrospective, descriptive study with a quantitative approach and of an epidemiological nature, carried out based on secondary data obtained through the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN) regarding leprosy cases between the years 2015 and 2021. The highest incidence of leprosy cases was found in 2015 and the lowest in 2020. The profile of the patients was characterized by a predominance of males, age between 40 and 69 years, brown ethnicity, incomplete elementary school, notably from the 1st to the 4th grade, multibacillary operational classification, dimorphic and virchowian clinical forms, with more than five lesions, defining the operational typology that is the majority. There is a percentage that had the record of the number of doses made ignored or, when made, they were below what was recommended by the protocols. It is concluded that it is imperative to insert new epidemiological and clinical technical variables, the appropriate and adequate completion of the notification forms in order to complete the information.