Estudo retrospectivo da epidemiologia da leishmaniose visceral no Rio Grande do Sul: revisão de literatura

Visceral leishmaniasis (LV) is a disease of worldwide distribution and zoonotic potential. From the last decades is considered reemerging and has become a serious public health problem in Brazil and worldwide. In the Americas, is caused by the protozoan Leishmania chagasi and transmitted by the bite of infected sand fl y genus Lutzomyia. Infected dogs and humans are affected by a range of clinical signs, which may be asymptomatic, mildly symptomatic or polysymptomatic. Its importance in public health is due to the increased number of cases and the severity of the disease. Studies of human and dogs cases have revealed the occurrence of urbanization of visceral leishmaniasis in large Brazilian cities. The importance of this disease led the World Health Organization (WHO) to include it among the six diseases considered priority in their control program. In the RS the fi rst canine case was registered in 2008 in Sao Borja, and from that, new cases, including humans, have been reported showing that it is an emerging zoonosis in the state. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the current epidemiological situation of visceral leishmaniasis in Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil, from the retrospective analysis of already published data and also contribute to research on the LV in Brazil.