Leprosy is a chronic and infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae that presents cutaneous and neurological manifestations. This disease mainly affects the economically active population, thus having a high impact on public health. To analyze the incidence of leprosy cases in Brazil in the period from 2015 to 2024, highlighting occurrence by macro-regions and the influence of external factors. An ecological study was carried out with temporal and spatial distribution analysis of reported leprosy cases in Brazil using data from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (Sinan) and made available by the Ministry of Health/Health Surveillance Secretariat (SVS). The incidence of leprosy cases was analyzed according to the year of notification (aiming to observe trends and possible impacts of external factors, such as the COVID-19 pandemic) and the geographic macro-regions of residence (North, Northeast, Southeast, South and Center-West). Data were analyzed descriptively with a quantitative approach, through absolute frequency and percentage distribution of cases. A total of 307,560 leprosy cases were reported in Brazil between 2015 and 2024. In the spatial analysis, the Northeast region showed the highest incidence of cases, with 129,394 notifications ‒ approximately 42% of the national total. The Center-West, North and Southeast macro-regions had relatively similar numbers of cases, with 67,448, 56,388 and 44,553 cases, respectively. The South region had the lowest incidence of notifications, approximately 3% of the total (9,777 cases). From a temporal standpoint, there was a reduction in the number of cases starting in 2020, possibly due to underreporting caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, 36,265 cases were reported, while in 2020 there was a decrease of approximately 35%, with 23,511 cases. This reduction persisted until 2022, with a slight increase in 2023 (30,229 cases). The analysis revealed important regional disparities, with a very significant difference between the Northeast and South regions, with the highest and lowest incidence, respectively. In addition, an important trend of reduced notifications over the years was noted, especially after 2020.
Bittencourt et al. (Sun,) studied this question.