Soroprevalência de testes rápidos (ML Flow) em casos de hanseníase e contatos intradomiciliares em municípios endêmicos do Pará

Abstract

Leprosy, a millennial, still poses a major challenge to public health, including in relation to early diagnosis and health surveillance. In order to determine the seroprevalence of antiPGL-1 through ML-Flow rapid test in leprosy cases and their household contacts of endemic municipalities in Pará, we performed a cross-sectional study including 73 new leprosy cases and 135 household contacts, selected from April 2011 to January 2012, the reference units for treatment of leprosy in the municipalities of Belém, Marituba, Igarapé-Açú and Santarém. The results showed a prevalence of 14.8/10.000 inhabitants of leprosy cases among contacts investigated. The ML Flow seropositivity in index cases was 53.42% in multibacillary and 13.33% in household contacts. There was a direct association of positive ML Flow in household contact with the bacterial index of the index case. There was no association with time of coexistence and consanguinity of the index case in relation to Ml Flow test. There was an association between positive ML Flow test and realization of BCG between the contacts. These results indicate that the introduction of the ML Flow test could serve as an aid in the monitoring of cases and their contacts, becoming very important in epidemiological surveillance of leprosy.