Prevalência do diagnóstico da sífilis : avaliação dos resultados em um laboratório ambulatorial de uma cidade do interior do Rio Grande do Sul.

Abstract

Syphilis is a bacterial infection caused by Treponema pallidum that is endemic in lowand high-income countries and is an epidemic worldwide. Its manifestation happens of primary, secondary, tertiary or congenital form where it can cause the death in children born of infected mothers. For the diagnosis, the different phases of the disease must be observed to choose the appropriate examination. There are two types of serological tests. The treponemal test detects antibodies specific for the etiological agent that is present at all stages of the infection and the non-treponemic VDRL (Veneral Disease Research Laboratory) that detect non-treponemal antibodies and become positive after weeks of the onset of cancer. If the treatment is not performed the disease may progress over the years through the clinical phases and may lead to neurological or cardiovascular complications. The recommended drug for treatment is penicillin and the response to treatment is evaluated on the basis of changes over the months in the serological titers. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of syphilis among users of an outpatient laboratory in a city in the interior of Rio Grande do Sul, to analyze the results of the VDRL tests, estimate the prevalence of syphilis by gender; to estimate the prevalence of syphilis by age and to evaluate the increase in cases each year. Data were collected from the records of patients with syphilis treated at the outpatient laboratory in Santa Cruz do Sul. This is a crosssectional, observational, retrospective, quantitative, descriptive study. The increase in syphilis is observed as a worldwide epidemic, this could be analyzed in the current study where the progression of syphilis was significant in each year, as well as by gender and age, with a result of 5.3% prevalence for laboratory samples ambulatory, showing that we urgently need health services with strategies to eliminate this disease.