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- Title
Aspectos clínicos e epidemiológicos da leishmaniose visceral emmenores de 15 anos no estado do Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil.
- Authors
Barbosa, Isabelle Ribeiro; Clara Costa, Íris do Céu
- Abstract
Aims: To describe the clinical and epidemiological characteristics of children and adolescents with visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in the state of Rio Grande do Norte (RN), Brazil. Methods: A descriptive study of individuals 0-15 years with a diagnosis of autochthonous cases of VL was performed. We analyzed information for the period from January 2007 to December 2011, contained in the Disease Notifications Information System of the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Results: We identified 291 children and adolescents with VL, of whom 50.8% were male. The age group with the highest incidence of the disease was that of children under 5 years (72.5% of cases). It was found that 16.1% of these children lived in Natal (the state capital) and 40.9% were from four municipalities in RN; 70.4% were from the urban area. The main clinical manifestation was fever (76.9%) and the major physical findings were pallor (68%), splenomegaly (67.7%) and hepatomegaly (63.9%). The most commonly used treatment was N-methylglucamine antimoniate (61%), followed by liposomal amphotericin B (5.77%) and conventional amphotericin B (1.44%). The average time between the occurrence of the first symptoms and the beginning of treatment was 32.5 days; 69.4% of subjects patients achieved cure and 3.8% died. Conclusions: The incidence of LV in the group of children under 15 years of age in Rio Grande do Norte, in the five studied years, was higher than that observed in the general population in Brazil. The largest number of cases occurred in urban areas. In many cases there was a considerable time gap between onset of symptoms and start of treatment. It is suggested a more targeted observation on the part of health professionals, aiming at early recognition of the disease in children, allowing appropriate treatment and preventing complications
- Subjects
VISCERAL leishmaniasis; POLYENE antibiotics; IONOPHORES; AMPHOTERICIN B; PROTOZOAN diseases
- Publication
Scientia Medica, 2013, Vol 23, Issue 1, p5
- ISSN
1806-5562
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.15448/1980-6108.2013.1.12970