The prevalence of syphilis in a city of Minas Gerais, Brazil
International Journal of Development Research
The prevalence of syphilis in a city of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Received 17th August, 2019; Received in revised form 21st September, 2019; Accepted 08th October, 2019; Published online 20th November, 2019
Copyright © 2019, Policardo Gonçalves da Silva et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Syphilis is caused by Treponema pallidum bacterium. The precocious detection of the infection is possible with treponemal and non-treponemal tests that contribute to the implementation of public health policies. The aim of this study is to investigate the prevalence of syphilis in a city of the south of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It is characterized as an observational, retrospective and quantitative study accomplished between 2013 and 2018. The data were obtained from Sistema de Informação Nacional de Agravos de Notificação (SINAN - National Reporting Disease Informational System). It was observed that there were 468 diagnosed syphilis cases, showing an annual growth. Statiscally, 59.6% of those cases were male, 55.5% were white and 26% had completed High School. The age group with the highest number of diagnoses was from 15 to 34 years old, counting on 50.64% of the cases. Therefore, it can be seen the syphilis increase in the investigated city and the most affected groups, facilitating the development of more effective prevention, diagnosis and treatment policies aimed at these groups.
