Abstract

CAVALCANTE, Maria do Socorro; RAMOS JR, Alberto Novaes  and  PONTES, Ligia Regina Sansigolo Kerr. Linkage of health information systems: a strategy to optimize the surveillance of pregnant women infected by HIV. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2005, vol.14, n.2, pp.127-133. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742005000200009.

Due to its complexity, the surveillance of vertical HIV transmission is a challenge for the health services. The objective of this study is to present a strategy to optimize the surveillance of HIV-infected pregnant women in the Municipality of Fortaleza, Ceará State, Brazil, from 1999 to 2001. The study was carried out in two stages: 1) integration of the three databases of Live Born System (Sinasc), Central Laboratory (Lacen), and Notification Diseases Information System (Sinan), and 2) active surveillance of medical records of public hospitals that are known to assist births of HIV-infected women. The integration of databases of Lacen and Sinasc identified 150 women infected by HIV, and 41 (29.7%) of them were found in the database of Sinan. Seventy percent of these cases (97/138) were not reported in any of the other three databases. The integration of the existing information obtained from the databases represents an appropriate strategy to improve the quality of information allowing a better evaluation of the epidemiological situation in intervention measures.

Keywords : health information systems; epidemiological surveillance; vertical transmission of diseases; human immunodeficiency virus.

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