Resumo

GEROLOMO, Moacir  e  PENNA, Maria Lúcia Fernandes. The seventh pandemy of cholera in Brazil. Inf. Epidemiol. Sus [online]. 1999, vol.8, n.3, pp.49-58. ISSN 0104-1673.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S0104-16731999000300003.

The study evaluates the pattern of the seventh pandemy of cholera in Brazil, through a descriptive analysis of the distribution of the cases diagnosed and notified by the Ministry of Health between April 1991 and March 1996, since its beginning, totalizing a five-year study. Several issues investigated such as: disease incidence, geographic distribution, seasonally-related, sex and age-groups distribution, mortality, diagnosis criteria, and type of medical assistance. An important heterogeneity among the five Macro-Regions as well as among the States within each of these regions, was observed. The analyses of information regarding the diagnosis criteria to confirm the cases, the type of medical assistance offered to the patients, and the mortality rates, indicate that the subnotification of cases took place throughout the country, being more intense in some states. According to the international literature, the pattern of incidence of cholera in Brazil is more frequent in the age-groups older than age fourteen, remains high among the eldery and it is also high in the age-group younger than age five. The incidence of cholera was higher among males than females and it remained such way in all five years age-groups. By taking the States into consideration in the analysis it was observed that the tendency of the number of cases notified was reduced after the two outbreaks observed within the five-year study. The only exception was the Amazon State which shows a consistent yearly seasonal pattern of outbreaks generating some hyphoteses in order to explain such findings.

Palavras-chave : Cholera; Brazil; Epidemic; Seventh Pandemy.

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