Relapse in leprosy: revelations from epidemiological notifications

Abstract

Type of study: comparative, observational, crosssectional, descriptive study. Objectives: to verify characteristics of leprosy relapsing cases; to clarify peculiarities of such people; to compare results with pertinent technical literature information; to try to understand respective convergences and divergences. Methods: study carried out on data from Health Surveillance Unit of Hospital and Maternity Celso Pierro, Campinas, Brazil, on 110 epidemiological notification information forms have been recorded from the National System on Diseases (SINAN) during eight consecutive years. Descriptive results, referring to position and variability measures are presented on table configuration. Associations have been searched by Goodman’s tests intra and inter multinomial proportions. Results: it was observed that, in the diagnosis process, no relapse cases are more probably referred by other services, affected only by one lesion, with one or two nerves impaired and no physical disabilities. Otherwise, relapsed patients are classified as multibacillary, even if with negative bacilloscopy. Conclusions: such characteristics differ in some aspects in relation to what is mentioned on the literature. This can be explained by the way SINAN data are collected and processed, as well as by medical experience on detecting relapses and by operational difficulties presented in the Basic Health Units.