EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY ON LEPROSY ANALYSIS OF NOTIFIED CASES AND THE INFLUENCE OF COVID-19 IN THE PRE AND POST PANDEMIC PERIOD

Abstract

Currently, there is still a high rate of leprosy diagnoses in Brazil, with the second highest number of cases in the world, being considered an important public health problem in the country. In addition to the challenge of reducing the number of leprosy cases, in the last 3 years the world has been facing a major COVID-19 pandemic, which contributed to a major collapse of the health system, affecting the monitoring and treatment of several other relevant diseases, mainly in the national territory. The following article aims to analyze the notification of leprosy cases carried out in the 10th Health Region and the influence that the pandemic had on this process, seeking to understand whether or not there was underreporting of new carriers. This is a descriptive longitudinal epidemiological study, quantitatively addressing data provided in DATASUS, analyzing leprosy notifications in general, and also separately according to age, gender, race and type of outcome.