Morbidy and mortality for gastroenteritis in the State of Pará

Abstract

In Brazil, gastroenteritis mainly affects children aged 0 to 5 years and is considered a significant public health problem. The reduction of the morbidity and mortality rates caused by gastroenteritis is responsible for the decrease in the rates of overall infant mortality and infant mortality due to infectious diseases in developing countries. This work is a descriptive study developed in collaboration with the Epidemiology Department of Pará in order to determine the importance of gastroenteritis as a cause of hospitalizations and deaths in Pará State. Initially, data about morbidity and hospitalization were obtained from Information Systems on mortality, health and hospital admissions and from health indicators and the Monitoring of Acute Diarrheal Diseases (MADD) program in the period between 2000 and 2004. There were 590,595 recorded cases of diarrhea. There was an increase in the number of cases of diarrhea notified by MADD during this period, with the highest frequency rates found in children aged 1 to 4 years old (average of 48,887 cases), followed by 33,151 cases in children below one year of age. In 2004, the hospitalization rate due to diarrhea in children below one was of 35 per one thousand live births. The coefficient of mortality decreased during the period studied, reaching 2.91 per 100 thousand inhabitants in 2004, following the reduction trend of mortality rates by diarrhea in Brazil. Despite this reduction, diarrhea remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Pará State, especially affecting children below 1 year of age.