Análise epidemiológica dos casos novos de tuberculose (2009-2018) em uma população privada de liberdade no nordeste brasileiro

Abstract

Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) persists as an important and challenging problem in the area of population health, contributing to the maintenance of inequality and social exclusion in several countries. The prison environment is marked by weaknesses, such as overcrowding and poor ventilation, poor nutrition, poor sanitary and hygienic conditions, in addition to drug use, associated diseases and poor health services. In the country, the incidence rate of tuberculosis in the prison population is about 28 times higher than that of the general population. In view of this, there is a need to answer the following guiding research question: What are the epidemiological characteristics of new cases of tuberculosis among persons deprived of their liberty notified in Alagoas from 2009 to 2018? Objective: To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of new cases of tuberculosis among persons deprived of their liberty notified in Alagoas from 2009 to 2018. Method: This is a descriptive, retrospective, quantitative study. The study population consisted of persons deprived of their freedom notified with tuberculosis in the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (SINAN) from prison units in the state of Alagoas from 2009 to 2018. The data explained were analyzed using descriptive statistics, based on relative and absolute frequency in percentage. The data were tabulated in the format of a bank in the Excel software and later analyzed statistically in the software Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21. Results: In the historical series from 2009 to 2018, there is the notification / occurrence of new cases associated with persons deprived of liberty (PPL) in all Health Regions / RS of the State of Alagoas. In addition, three important peaks in the increase in the number of new tuberculosis cases in the prison system are 22.9% (2013), 9.3% (2016) and 13.4% (2018). Among the 411 new notified cases of tuberculosis among people deprived of their liberty in Alagoas, it was found that 80.8% were male. Regarding the age group (in years), the largest number of cases is concentrated between 20 and 39 years (63.5%). Regarding race / skin color, 330 (80.3%) were black / brown and 11.4% were white. The prevalence of blacks / browns is about eight times the prevalence of whites. Regarding the clinical characteristics of new cases of tuberculosis, the pulmonary clinical form was almost all, represented in 90.3% of cases. Conclusion: The growing number of people in confinement in the prison system is one of the main factors that aggravate health-related problems in this environment. The study reveals an increase in new cases of tuberculosis among PPL during the study period, with a predominance of individuals with brown skin color and low education in the population studied. The reality of prison units in Brazil favors the spread of mycobacteria: overcrowding, low sunlight, limited access to health services, malnutrition, use of alcohol and drugs, tobacco and comorbidities such as HIV.