Assessment of actions for the control of leprosy in the municipality of Governador Valadares, Brazil, the period of 2001/2006

• Autor(a) principal: Morais, Sabrina Gomes
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Outros Autores: Malaquias, Luiz Cosme Cotta, Branco, Alexandre Castelo, Escalda, Patrícia Maria Fonseca, Lana, Franscisco Carlos Félix
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Hansenologia Internationalis (Online)
• DOI: 10.47878/hi.2010.v35.36221
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.saude.sp.gov.br/hansenologia/article/view/36221

Leprosy is an infectious and contagious disease of chronic evolution manifested primarily through signs and dermato-neurological symptoms: skin and peripheral nerve lesions. The aim of this study is to evaluate the epidemiological and operational control of leprosy in the city of Governador Valadares/MG in the period 2001 to 2006. This is an epidemiological, descriptive, and transversal study. The high detection rates in general and in children under 15 found in the city of Governador Valadares between 2001 and 2006’s characterized the municipality as hyperendemic for leprosy. Despite the predominance of young adults, the amount of people under 15 years diagnosed is still high indicating the need for preventive actions in this age group. There is a trend of improvement with respect to the type of discharge, with an increase in cases of healing and reduction of dropout rates from 2005. Governador Valadares has shown improvement in their control actions over the years, but there is a bigchallenge in the control of leprosy in the district. It is necessary to intensify surveillance and adoption of effective control so that the council reaches the goals of eliminating the disease as a public health problem.