Clinical-Epidemiological Profile of Tuberculosis Cases in the State of Ceará

Abstract

Tuberculosis, caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a highly relevant infectious disease. Therefore, this study sought to analyze the clinical and epidemiological profile of tuberculosis in Ceará from 2001 to 2022. This is an ecological study, with data obtained from the Notifiable Diseases Information System. Information was collected on the year of diagnosis, sex, race, education, age group, type of entry, form, sputum culture, sensitivity, Directly Observed Treatment, co-infections and use of antiretrovirals. The data were organized in Microsoft Excel®, where absolute and relative frequencies were calculated, in addition to prevalence, incidence and lethality coefficients. Since this is a study with public domain information, approval by the Research Ethics Committee was waived. There were 94,410 cases of tuberculosis, of which 63.92% were male, 62.10% were brown and 22.38% were in the 20-29 age group. Of the sample, 80.84% ​​were newly diagnosed cases, with a predominance of the pulmonary form (86.91%). The average prevalence, incidence and lethality rates were 5 and 4.1 cases per 10,000 inhabitants, and 2.3 deaths per 100 people. Therefore, it is necessary to implement prevention and awareness measures about tuberculosis, promoting the reduction of the number of cases in Ceará.