EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF PATIENTS WITH LEPROSY IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF CASCAVEL – PR IN THE PERIOD FROM 2018 TO 2022

Abstract

Leprosy is defined as a chronic infectious disease, caused by the Mycobacterium leprae bacillus, this disease mainly affects the skin and peripheral nerves, and can cause neurological damage as sequelae, Brazil is the second country with the highest number of reported cases in the world. This work had the general objective to collect data on the epidemiology of leprosy in the municipality of Cascavel - PR between the years 2018 to 2022, to raise the number of notified cases of the disease and to relate the epidemiological characteristics related to the identified cases. For the development of this research, SINAN was used, a public system for querying data related to procedures performed by the Unified Health System - SUS, in addition, graphs were used to illustrate the research carried out. With the research it can be observed that there was a higher incidence of male patients (58.72%), the general age group of 50 to 59 years (25,69%), in relation to education there was a higher incidence of patients with incomplete 1st to 4th grade of elementary school (25,69%), it was also found that the largest number of patients was white, being of the multibacillary functional type (84%), with grade 0 physical disability (63,30%). The identification of an epidemiological profile can help health professionals to suspect the disease when the patient has a suggestive clinical condition, allowing for an early diagnosis, as well as an early start of treatment.