Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae.This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological, temporal, and spatial dynamics ofleprosy in a municipality in northeastern Brazil. METHODS: This is an ecological study on new leprosy cases in the population of Arapiraca (Alagoas, Northeast Region, Brazil), from 2008 to 2017. Data extracted from a national database were analyzed forepidemiological indicators, factors associated with physical disabilities, and spatialanalysis in the neighborhoods of Arapiraca. RESULTS: A total of 292 new cases of leprosy were recorded, particularly occurring among the following groups: women, the age group of 46-59 years, brown-skinned individuals, people with less than eight years of schooling, and urban residents; the new cases were also predominantly the tuberculoid form and were of the paucibacillary classification of the disease. Almost 1/3 of the people had some degree of physical disability, which was mainly associated with the group 60 years of age and older, black ethnicity, and the multibacillary clinical form of leprosy. The joinpoint regression showed a stationary temporal behavior of indicators. There was a heterogeneous spatial distribution with active transmission areas, especially in the neighborhoods Primavera, Baixão, Ouro Preto, and downtown. CONCLUSIONS: The epidemiological indicators revealed complexity in the process of leprosy development. These spatial and temporal studies are relevant to help in the planning, monitoring, and guidance of interventions in the municipality. The spatial analysis showed heterogeneous distribution in the analyzed neighborhoods.
Highlights
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae.This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological, temporal, and spatial dynamics ofleprosy in a municipality in northeastern Brazil
Between 2008 and 2017, 292 new leprosy cases were recorded in Arapiraca
There was a preponderance of women (54.1%; n = 151) and individuals in the age group of 46–59 years (29.5%; n = 86); 3.8% (n = 11) of individuals were under 15 years old, 68.8% were brown-skinned (n = 201), and 65.4% had less than 8 years of schooling (n = 191)
Summary
Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae.This study aimed to analyze the epidemiological, temporal, and spatial dynamics ofleprosy in a municipality in northeastern Brazil. Leprosy is a chronic contagious infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, an obligate intracellular alcohol-acid resistant bacillus (AARB)[1,2,3,4] This microorganism mainly affects the skin and peripheral nerves and is of clinical and epidemiological importance mainly due to its disabling potential[5,6,7,8]. In Brazil, 25,218 new cases of leprosy were recorded in 2016, reaching a detection rate of 12.2/100 thousand inhabitants Of this total, 1,696 occurred in people under 15 years old[11]. Brazil has the second highest number of annual diagnoses and was the only country that did not reach the goal of eliminating the disease as a public health problem (HP) by the year 201510,12
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