Perfil epidemiológico dos pacientes com hanseníase atendidos em Centro de Saúde em São Luís, MA

JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: O estado do Maranhao e classificado em relacao a prevalencia de hanseniase como o 2o do Brasil com maior prevalencia da doenca. O objetivo deste estudo foi caracterizar o perfil epidemiologico dos pacientes atendidos em centro de saude de referencia.METODO: Realizou-se estudo retrospectivo e descritivo, em que foram revisados os prontuarios de 183 pacientes, atendidos no periodo de janeiro de 2007 a dezembro de 2008, analisando-se os seguintes parâmetros: idade, sexo, classificacao operacional, forma clinica, grau de incapacidade e motivo de saida dos pacientes. RESULTADOS: Entre os prontuarios analisados nao houve diferenca significativa entre homens e mulheres, com 51% e 49%, respectivamente. A idade media dos pacientes afetados foi prevalente nos pacientes entre 16 e 30 anos com 35,5%. A maioria dos pacientes (78%) teve classificacao operacional multibacilar com a forma clinica dimorfa predominante. A problematica da hanseniase nao se limita apenas ao grande numero de casos, deve ser considerado tambem o seu alto potencial incapacitante. Essas incapacidades tem sido responsaveis pelo estigma e discriminacao dos pacientes. Neste estudo 33% dos pacientes apresentam grau I e 9% grau II de incapacidade. Entretanto, 68% tiveram exito em seu tratamento chegando a cura. CONCLUSAO: Os resultados desta analise apontam que o servico de hanseniase esta realizando o diagnostico predominantemente de maneira tardia, devido ao fato da maioria dos pacientes ser diagnosticados na forma multibacilar, associada aos numeros elevados de casos com algum grau de incapacidade. O grau de incapacidade acentuado pode ser reflexo de uma procura tardia pelo servico de saude por parte do paciente.(AU) BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The state of Maranhao located in Northern Brazil, is ranked second as for the prevalence of hanseniasis within that country. This study has as its main goal to epidemiologically profile the patients treated at a public hanseniasis specialty hospital in Sao Luis, MA, capital and largest city. METHOD: In order to support this study, a retrospective-descriptive research was made, in which 183 patients? medical records were evaluated according to the parameters of age, sex, operational classification, clinical presentation, disability degree and reasons for dropping treatment. RESULTS: There was no significant difference between men and women in the analyzed records (49% versus 51%, respectively). The most affected age span was that of 16-30 years old, being 35.5% of the charts analyzed. The majority of the patients (78%) were operationally classified multibacilar, and the dimorph clinical presentation was the most predominant one. When talking about hanseniasis, not only the number of cases must be taken into account, but also the high disability potential each case has. These disabilities are blamed responsible for the stigma and discrimination of the patients. In this study, 33% of the patients treated were reported disability stage I, and 9% were reported stage II; however, 68% of the patients were successfully cured. CONCLUSION: This analysis results point that the public control service of hanseniasis dissemination is late diagnosing the cases, due to the facts that the majority of the patients were first diagnosed with multibacilar operational classification and the high rate of cases with some disability degree. Chances are that the higher the disability level is the later patients are being referenced to the specialty healthcare center.(AU)