Prevalence of notified cases of tuberculosis in elderly people in Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Introduction: Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious disease whose etiological agent is the bacilli of the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Brazil reported 68 thousand new cases of tuberculosis in 2014, and this high incidence has made it the 16th place in the number of cases among the 22 countries with high disease burden. Objective: To verify the prevalence of reported cases of tuberculosis in the elderly, in Rio Grande do Sul, between 2012 and 2017. Methods: Descriptive research, using data from the Tabulation of the epidemiological surveillance with the option “Tuberculosis”. In “Line” was marked the “Regional notification”, in “Column” was selected the “Age group” and in “Content” to “Frequency”. As “Available periods”, the years 2012 to 2017 were selected in isolation. In the “Age group” the items “60 to 69 years”, “70 to 79 years” and “80 years and over” were selected. For the sex discrimination selected the items “Male” and “Female”. Results: Among the cases of tuberculosis, 3122 elderly individuals were found between 60 and 69 years of age, 1443 were between 70 and 79 years old, and 570 were aged 80 years and over. There was also a predominance of males among those infected. Conclusion: There was a high prevalence of tuberculosis in the elderly. It is hoped that this knowledge can subsidize data for the elaboration of public policies for this population, propitiating a lower incidence of this disease and its aggravations.