Leishmaniose mucosa: considerações epidemiológicas e de tratamento

Abstract

In South Brazil, American tegumentary leishmaniasis is predominant at Paraná, specially on the North and West areas, where it is localized one of the disease’s production circuits. It is believed that 3 to 5% of the cases evolve to the mucosal form, and that 1% of these can evolve to death. There is a long time that first choice drugs to treat this disease are the antimony compounds as pentavalent salts. The purpose of this study was to describe epidemiological and treatment characteristics of patients with mucosal leishmaniasis, who were diagnosed during the period from 2001 to 2007 in cities located on the coverage area of the 13 Heath Regional, which is situated in Cianorte, Paraná. The data were collected at the outpatient medical records and the System of Notifications and Information of Diseases epidemiological investigation records. During the mentioned period, 505 cases of American tegumentary leishmaniasis were notified, 30 of them (6%) as the mucosal form. In this study, the patients included were those with diagnosis of mucosal leishmaniasis that had complementary exams performed before and during the treatment. The results showed the need of patients’ careful monitoring by health teams, due to the possible evolution of the disease and the presence of unwanted drug effects.