PERFIL CLÍNICO-EPIDEMIOLÓGICO DOS PACIENTES NOTIFICADOS COM HANSENÍASE NO ESTADO DO MARANHÃO DE 2006 A 2015

Leprosy is a slow-evolving disease characterized by dermatoneurological signs and symptoms, which can cause disabilities and physical deformities. Brazil has the second highest prevalence of leprosy in the world and has approximately 90.0% of diagnosed cases in the Americas. The concentration is mainly in the Midwest, North and Northeast regions. The state of Maranhão occupies the third place in Brazil and the first in the Northeast region in relation to detection and prevalence rates. The aim of this study is to describe the clinical and epidemiological profile of leprosy cases reported in Maranhão between 2006 and 2015. This is an ecological and retrospective study, with a quantitative approach, carried out with leprosy cases reported in Maranhão. The data were obtained from the database of the National System of Notifiable Diseases - SINAN/NET. The variables gender, age group, health macro-region, detection mode, operational classification, clinical form, degree of disability in diagnosis, degree of disability at discharge and type of exit were analyzed. The data were processed using the Microsoft Excel application, version 2013, considering the absolute frequencies and percentages. During the period studied, 39581 cases of leprosy were reported in the state of Maranhão. There was a higher concentration in the macro-region of São Luís, male (56.79%), age between 15 and 59 years (71.14%) and diagnosed by spontaneous demand (53.19%). Regarding the operational classification, 64.89% were multibacillary and of the dimorphic clinical form (53.20%). Regarding the assessment of the degree of physical disability at diagnosis, 61.28% had Degree Zero and, at the time of discharge, this percentage was 73.58%. Discharge by cure was recorded in 67.90% of the cases. There is need for strategies favoring the early diagnosis of the disease and increasing the percentage of discharge by cure.