Leprosy in the city of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais: epidemiologyc and operational aspects

Abstract

Leprosy is an infectious disease caused by the Mycobacterium leprae that still has a social historical image. The development of science has not been successful in changing people's fear and prejudice towards this illness. This is a descriptive and traversal study that aims to analyze the epidemiology of leprosy in the city of Ouro Preto between 2002 and 2008, in order to establish control strategies and identify possible homogeneous areas of risk transmission. Data were collected from the National Injury Surveillance System, at the Epidemiology Office of the city. Results show that all notifications were accomplished in the General Hospital of Ouro Preto. There is a possible cluster of the disease in the district of Santa Rita's since 72% of the notifications belonged to local residents. Such information suggests there is a remaining area of high disease incidence in old Vila Rica. The average rate of leprosy in Ouro Preto was 2.1/10000 while in the district of Santa Rita it was 24.5/10000, indicating a hyperendemic region. We also observed that cases in citizens under 15 years-old represented 2.9% of the total cases. Detection rate in 2002, 2006 and 2008 equals 0.5/10.000 citizens, showing active transmission of the disease. We highlight the importance of decentralizing health services in order to improve access to diagnosis and treatment of the disease as well as to promote new researches about its history and determinants.