TY - JOUR KW - Adolescent KW - Adult KW - Brazil KW - Delivery of Health Care KW - Endemic Diseases KW - Female KW - Health Care Surveys KW - Humans KW - Interviews as Topic KW - leprosy KW - Male KW - Middle Aged KW - Surveys and Questionnaires KW - Time Factors KW - Urban Health Services AU - Deps PD AU - Guedes BV S AU - Bucker Filho J AU - Andreatta MK AU - Marcari RS AU - Rodrigues L AB -

This paper reports on the time between the onset of the first lesion and diagnosis, defined as delay, and is based on results obtained by interviewers from a survey carried out amongst 450 leprosy patients in a leprosy endemic area in the Metropolitan Region of Vitória (MRV), state of Espirito Santo, Brazil. The mean age at diagnosis in all cases was 41.47 years and the median was 42.5 years. The mean age at diagnosis in MB (42.9 years) was greater than in PB (38.5 years). The mean of the delay in all cases was 25.25 months, median 12 months and range 0-360 months. The mean of the delay in MB (27.2 months) was greater than in PB (21.3 months). The results of this study suggest that although the delay in leprosy diagnosis in this region of Brazil was not too long when it was compared with other studies in endemic countries, it is still a problem: 65.4% of patients were diagnosed after a delay of 6 months. The Leprosy Control Programme in this state needs more effective health education in order to reduce the current period of delay before diagnosis.

BT - Leprosy review C1 -

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16715689?dopt=Abstract

CN - Infolep Library - available DA - 2006 Mar IS - 1 J2 - Lepr Rev LA - eng N2 -

This paper reports on the time between the onset of the first lesion and diagnosis, defined as delay, and is based on results obtained by interviewers from a survey carried out amongst 450 leprosy patients in a leprosy endemic area in the Metropolitan Region of Vitória (MRV), state of Espirito Santo, Brazil. The mean age at diagnosis in all cases was 41.47 years and the median was 42.5 years. The mean age at diagnosis in MB (42.9 years) was greater than in PB (38.5 years). The mean of the delay in all cases was 25.25 months, median 12 months and range 0-360 months. The mean of the delay in MB (27.2 months) was greater than in PB (21.3 months). The results of this study suggest that although the delay in leprosy diagnosis in this region of Brazil was not too long when it was compared with other studies in endemic countries, it is still a problem: 65.4% of patients were diagnosed after a delay of 6 months. The Leprosy Control Programme in this state needs more effective health education in order to reduce the current period of delay before diagnosis.

PY - 2006 SP - 41 EP - 7 T2 - Leprosy review TI - Delay in the diagnosis of leprosy in the Metropolitan Region of Vitória, Brazil. UR - https://leprosyreview.org/article/77/1/04-1047 VL - 77 SN - 0305-7518 ER -