Abstract

WALDMAN, Eliseu Alves; SILVA, Luiz Jacinto da  and  MONTEIRO, Carlos Augusto. Infectious diseases trends: from polio elimination to the reintroduction of cholera. Inf. Epidemiol. Sus [online]. 1999, vol.8, n.3, pp.05-47. ISSN 0104-1673.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S0104-16731999000300002.

In the last decades the pattern of morbidity and mortality in the Brazilian population has undergone important changes. One of the main changes corresponds to the decrease in the relative weight of infectious and parasitic diseases. Trends in the evolution of the main transmissible diseases in the country are reviewed in this work and the role of controle measures and other factors is considered. Three different situations are apparent when data are analyzed in specific grups of diseases: 1) favorabel situations in which control measures were followed by a marked decrease in the following diseases and conditions: gastroenteritis, vaccine preventable diseases (in particular poliomyelitis, considered eliminated since 1994), enteroparasitosis, severe forms of schistosomiasis and the interruption of the natural transmition of Chagas `disease; 2) situations where diseases may persist for a long time as in the case of urban endemic diseases, such as tuberculosis and Hansens' disease and other endemic diseases, such as malaria and leishmaniasis; and 3) situations that point to diseases with a great expansion potential, such as dengue and cholera.

Keywords : Infectious and Parasitic Diseases; Transmissible Diseases; Infectious Diseases Trends in Brazil.

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