Dengue na Amazônia: aspectos epidemiológicos no Estado de Rondônia, Brasil, de 1999 a 2010 Dengue in the Amazon: epidemiological aspects in Rondônia State, Brazil, from 1999 to 2010 Dengue en la Amazonía: aspectos epidemiológicos en el Estado de Rondônia, Brasil, de 1999 a 2010

ABSTRACTDengue is a viral, acute, and systemic disease that is mainly transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti. It is spread through all 26 states of the Brazilian Federation and in the Federal District, and approximately 70% of all the world’s notifications of dengue are recorded in Brazil. The objective of the present study is to analyze the epidemiology of dengue between 1999 and 2010 in Rondonia State, comparing the data obtained with that of the country as a whole during this period. As information sources, we used the official records from the National System for Notifiable Diseases (Sistema Nacional de Agravos de Notificacao), the State Agency of Sanitary Surveillance (Agencia Estadual de Vigilância Sanitaria), and the Department of Informatics (Departamento de Informatica) of the Brazilian Unified Health System (DATASUS). The data refer to the period from 1999 (the beginning of the notifications) to 2010 (the last year with complete data). Information was collected regarding the notified and confirmed cases, severe forms of the disease, the incidence rate, and the number of deaths. From the beginning of documentation, there was an exponential increase in the cases of dengue in the state. The number of reported cases increased from 969 in 1999 to 27,910 in 2010, which represents a 2,880% increase in notifications. The notifications were concentrated mainly in the capital, Porto Velho. In addition, the incidence rate increased from 7.63 to 365.9 per 100,000 inhabitants. Regarding the reporting of severe cases, there were increases in the number of all types of severe case expression and in the occurrence of deaths. It is necessary to develop public policies that prevent future epidemics to avoid a greater occurrence of the severe forms of the disease and, consequently, an increase in the number of deaths