[Clinical and epidemiological profile of patients with leprosy-related reactions]. / Perfil clínico e epidemiológico de pacientes em reação hansênica.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To identify the clinical and epidemiological profile of patients under treatment for leprosy-related reactions. METHOD: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional and quantitative study, conducted from October 2013 to April 2014 with 61 individuals in a reference center in the Brazilian northeast region. The statistical test used considered a significance level of 0,05. RESULTS: Most individuals were males (57.38%), with low family income (50.82%) and incomplete elementary education (75.41%). In the moment of leprosy diagnosis, 52.45% of patients presented some degree of physical disability established. There was significant association between the observed clinic form and the moment of manifestation of leprosy reactions (p= 0.034). The residual analysis indicated that pure neural leprosy is associated to a manifestation of reactions before treatment and dimorphous leprosy was associated to manifestations during treatment. CONCLUSION: The disclosure of the clinical picture of pure neural leprosy and early detection of cases strongly contribute to the promotion of population health enabling the fulfillment of the goal of eradicating leprosy.