Perfil epidemiológico e clínico das meningites infecciosas em idosos, no Hospital de Doenças Tropicais – HDT/AA Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil, 2000 - 2006
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2008-08-25
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Universidade Federal de Goiás
Resumo
It is estimated that until the year 2020, in Brazil, 13 % of the population will be
constituted by the elderly (population who are above 60 years old), counting 30 million people.
The frequency and the gravity of the infectious diseases spread with age. Among these days,
infectious diseases are the third cause of death after the sixty’s. The physical changes and the lack
of immunological response in the elderly worsen day after day, favoring the infections’ gravity.
Moreover, chronic diseases treated with immunosuppressor drugs and other, repeated
hospitalizations and nutritional deficiency are addictive factors which explain this kind of
diseases to grow worse in this specific population. This dissertation is about a retrospective essay
with a descriptive analysis raising medical documents from patients with infectious meningitis in
the Hospital de Doenças Tropicais (HDT), State of Goiás, Brazil, and aimed to evaluate the
epidemiologic and clinical profile of the infectious meningitis in the elderly, the level of clinical
suspicion and confirmation in health services in our State. About 110 cases of meningitis in
elderly were notified between the years 2000 and 2006. From all cases, 64 (58,71%) were
confirmed, 64,0% of non-specified infection meningitis, 14,06%, fungus meningitis (4,68%),
pneumococcol meningitis (12,5%), tuberculosis meningitis (3,12%) and meningococcal
meningitis(1,5%). The mortality was higher in non-specified meningitis (65,21%), and fungus,
tuberculosis and pneumococcol meningitis presented the highest lethality. The long period
between the clinical suspicion of meningitis, with 6,41 days until the diagnose was confirmed,
delayed treatment and surely contributed to raise the number of the infections and deaths. The
unsuitable medical graduation in elderly’s support has delayed diagnose, extending the interval
between the beginning of the symptoms and the effective treatment, and so on, increasing the
mortality index of this population. The proposal of this essay is to build a preferable attendance
service for the elderly, with basic knowledge in infectious diseases in this particular population,
favoring the fast diagnose and the effective treatment in order to reduce the mortality in this age
group.
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ALVARENGA, José Alberto. Perfil epidemiológico e clínico das meningites infecciosas em idosos, no Hospital de Doenças Tropicais – HDT/AA Goiânia, Goiás, Brasil, 2000 - 2006. 2008. 46 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Medicina Tropical e Saúde Publica) - Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia, 2008.