Characterization of leprosy in children under 15 years inan important municipality of north-eastern Brazil

Souza, Carlos Dornels Freire de Souza; Matos, Thais Silva

The presence of leprosy in children younger than 15 years is a strong indicator of the maintenance of the epidemiologicalchain of transmission and evidences of the early exposure. This study aims to identify the family, clinical andepidemiological characteristics of individuals younger than 15 years who were diagnosed with leprosy in the city ofJuazeiro-BA. This is an observational, cross-sectional and descriptive study. The study population consisted of all casesof leprosy diagnosed in children under 15 between 2012 and 2014, in the city of Juazeiro-BA. The ComplementaryProtocol for the Diagnostic Investigation of Cases of Leprosy in Children Under 15 (PCID <15) was used as the datasource. The protocol was completed at the time of diagnosis at the Leprosy Reference Centre of the municipality understudy. This document is part of the medical records of the patients being treated, and is filed in the outpatient clinic. Afterthe data collection, the data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 20. Adoption of significance was 95%. 42cases were diagnosed in the age group studied, and the mean annual detection coefficient was 24.85 cases / 100,000individuals in this age group. Of the total, 66.7% were female. The mean age of the girls was lower than the mean ageof the boys, with a significant difference between the genders (p = 0.021). The anamnesis showed that in 33.3% of thecases, the first diagnosis was wrong and leprosy was treated as other diseases. It is also noted that 54.8% of patientshad a family history of leprosy. The tuberculoid form and paucibacillary operational classification stood out (88.0% and90.5%, respectively). The study showed that PCID <15 years is an important instrument capable of identifying problemsin the quality of leprosy services, such as the fragility in the diagnosis of the disease in the population under 15 years(AU)

BVS IEC

Instituto Evandro Chagas

Formato de exportação:

Characterization of leprosy in children under 15 years inan important municipality of north-eastern Brazil / Caracterização da hanseníase em menores de 15 anos em município prioritário do nordeste brasileiro

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