Dengue: describing the epidemic in Aracaju, Sergipe, Brazil, 2008

Abstract

Introduction: Dengue is a major public health problem in Brazil, characterized as acute febrile illness with clinical spectrum ranging from unspecific febrile to severe manifestations such as bleeding and shock. The dengue epidemiological surveillance (ES) must be agile enough to detect early outbreaks and cases of severe outcome, reducing lethality. Objectives: To study the epidemiology of dengue in the city of Aracaju in 2008. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study, which used the following variables: sex, patient age, race, epidemiological week of notification, health district, classification of the clinical form of the disease, serological test results (Mac-Elisa) and death. The information was collected from the database of the Information System for Notifiable Diseases of the Secretary of Health of Sergipe. The data were formatted in another database, using the Microsoft Office ExcelÒ, and later transferred to Stats Direct (version 2.7.9), which we performed a statistical analysis. Results: We reported 11348 suspected dengue cases and 10165 confirmed cases of dengue, assuming an incidence rate of 1.89 cases/1000 inhabitants in 2008. The incidence rate (cases/1000 inhabitants) were most affected females (20.5), 5 to 15 years (26.1) and brown skin color (28.1). With regard to epidemiological week, it was observed the period between the 9th and 24th week was the most epidemic. The most affected district was the fourth (22.3). As for the serological test, 43.1% of the serious cases were confirmed without their realization. Of the confirmed cases, 96.1% were classified as dengue fever, 2.6% such as dengue fever with complications and 1.2% such as Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever and only 2 patients (0.02%) with dengue shock syndrome. The final diagnosis of dengue compared to serology had had a sensitivity of 99.4% and a specificity of 97.0%. The fatality rate in severe cases was 4.6%. Conclusion: better understanding the epidemiology of the disease will allow the improvement of surveillance, detecting earlier and avoiding new epidemic disease.