Temporal trend of leprosy in a region of high endemicity in the Brazilian Northeast.

OBJECTIVE: to analyze the temporal trend and epidemiological patterns of leprosy indicators in Sobral, a municipality countryside of the state of Ceará, from 2001 to 2016.

METHOD: a time series study based on data from the Department of Informatics of the Unified Health System. The time trend analysis was performed using the join point regression model.

RESULTS: There were 2,220 new cases of leprosy in Sobral from 2001 to 2016. Of these, 158 (7.2%) in children younger than 15 years of age, the proportion of new male cases was 52.8% (1,162), cases with grade 2 were 7.0% (156), and proportion of cases diagnosed by contact examination 5.7% (126).

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS: leprosy remains hyperendemic in adults and children, demonstrating the character of neglected disease. Analysis of the temporal trend allowed to verify that the instability in the detection coefficients, reflect operational problems in the organization of the services.