Leishmaniose visceral humana: um retrato da situação de casos em idosos e longevos

Aims: to analyze the current Brazilian and of the state of Rio Grande do Sul epidemiological situation of visceral leishmaniasis (LVH) in the elderly and verifythe mortality coefficient.Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with a secondary data source, taken from SINAN data from January 2013 to December 2017, with confirmed visceral leishmaniasis in Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul, which are tabulated in Excel and analyzed with Epiinfo 7.Results: cases of LVH in the elderly have increased in the last 5 years, within the Brazilian and the state of Rio Grande do Sul settings. Although not widely reported, it is frequent to compromise and increase the proportion of elderly people who die from LVH, which was 20,3% of the cases in the period from 2013 to 2017, demonstrating the seriousness of the infection in this public. In our study we also found a strong relation between age and the increase in the lethality coefficient, reaching 46.87% in 2016.Discussion: One of the recent strategies in the fight against HVL is the slaughter of dogs that contains the parasite responsible for the transmission of the disease, but this method of control has not been very effective. Thus, the immunoprophylactic measurement by Leish-Tec® vaccine has a favorable effect in the fight  against the disease only in animals that are not in high transmission areas.