1. Spatial analysis of congenital syphilis in a federative unit in northeastern Brazil
- Author
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Francisca Jacinta Feitoza de Oliveira, Roberta de Araújo e Silva, Marcelino Santos Neto, Floriacy Stabnow Santos, Hanari Santos de Almeida Tavares, Sheila Cristina Teixeira Fonseca, Volmar Morais Fontoura, Ismália Cassandra Costa Maia Dias, Marcela de Oliveira Feitosa, Leonardo Hunaldo dos Santos, Janaina Miranda Bezerra, Arissane de Sousa Falcão, Lílian Natália Ferreira de Lima, Valckinara Carreiro Lima, Iolanda Graepp Fontoura, and Ana Cristina Pereira de Jesus Costa
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Disease ,Unit (housing) ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Pregnancy ,Epidemiology ,Medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Syphilis ,Pregnancy Complications, Infectious ,Child ,Spatial Analysis ,030505 public health ,business.industry ,Syphilis, Congenital ,Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health ,Ecological study ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical ,Infectious Diseases ,Congenital syphilis ,Parasitology ,Female ,Epidemiological Monitoring ,0305 other medical science ,business ,Brazil ,Demography - Abstract
Background Congenital syphilis is an infectious disease that affects 1 million children a year worldwide. Methods The objective of this study was to describe a spatial analysis of the epidemiological characteristics of congenital syphilis in the state of Maranhão, Brazil from 2007 to 2018. This was an ecological study using data obtained in May 2020 from three Brazilian information systems. The spatial correlation was analyzed according to local and global Moran indexes. Results During the 12-y period, 1 426 177 children were born. Of these children, 3684 acquired congenital syphilis (0.26%; mean annual rate of 2.62/1000 live births) and 70 died (1.90%; mean annual rate 0.05). The clusters were statistically significant according to the global Moran index of 0.40 (p=0.01). Spearman's correlation coefficient between the rate of detection of syphilis in pregnant women and family health strategy teams was strong, positive and significant (ρ=0.73; p Conclusions The use of spatial analysis tools have made it possible to detect areas with both a greater and a lesser need for intervention, and to more effectively improve and monitor those areas to change the epidemiological profile of the disease.
- Published
- 2020