PERFIL DOS CASOS DE TUBERCULOSE DIAGNÓSTICADOS EM LABORATÓRIO PARTICULAR DO MUNICÍPIO DE SÃO LUÍS

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The objective of the study was to identify the profile of patients who underwent a diagnosis of TB in a private laboratory in São Luís from 2019 to 2022. The work is a quantitative, descriptive, retrospective and documental study, based on secondary data from exams bacilloscopy provided by a laboratory and data available on DataSUS. The following variables were extracted: gender, age, city of origin, month and year of collection. After analyzing the bacilloscopy reports, it was identified that, from 2019 to 2022, 4,492 bacilloscopy exams were performed. 308 reports were positive for the presence of the M. tuberculosis bacillus, corresponding to 6.9% of positivity among the total number of tests. Males had a prevalence in the number of positive events, with 61.7% of positive cases for tuberculosis. Regarding the distribution of positive cases by age group, the age group from 20 to 34 years old had the highest number of cases. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there may have been an increase in the number due to underreporting of cases. The months with the highest detections were January and June. TB has not ceased to be a public health problem in Brazil and Maranhão, a fact that demonstrates how worrying the situation is, and how preventive measures must be constantly taking place to improve the previous diagnosis of patients and thus carry out the appropriate treatment.