Abstract

CORREA, Paulo Roberto Lopes  and  FRANCA, Elizabeth. Hemorrhagic Dengue in a Reference Unit as an Indicator of Underreporting Cases in the Municipality of Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1998. Epidemiol. Serv. Saúde [online]. 2007, vol.16, n.3, pp.175-184. ISSN 1679-4974.  http://dx.doi.org/10.5123/S1679-49742007000300004.

This study analyses the underreporting cases of hemorrhagic dengue (HD) comparing its occurrence in two Sanitary Districts (DS) of the Municipality of Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, between March and June of 1998. Medical records and registers of Notifying Diseases Information System (Sinan)/Ministry of Health, referring to suspect HD assisted at the reference unit (UAR) implemented in the Eastern DS, for clinical and laboratorial follow up, were compared to reported cases of HD by the health units of the Northwestern DS of Belo Horizonte. Two hundred and one assisted at the UAR were classified as suspected cases of dengue with spontaneous hemorrhage, of which eight (4%) were classified as HD Degree II, according to World Health Organization (WHO) criteria. In the same period, 545 suspected cases of dengue with spontaneous hemorrhage were registered at the Northwestern DS, for which an occurrence of 22 cases of HD Degree II was expected. The results of this study demonstrate that the strategy adopted at the Eastern DS should be adopted in other DSs of the city so to decrease underreporting as the impact of the disease on the population.

Keywords : health evaluation; health care; epidemiologic surveillance services; data collection; registries.

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