Abstract
Objective: To characterize the epidemiological pattern and identify the temporal trends of indicators for monitoring leprosy, State of Pará, Brazil, from 2006 to 2015. Methods: Descriptive population-based study with data analysis from the Disease Information System Ministry of Health Notification. Clinical and epidemiological data of 38,859 new cases were investigated. Results: The results showed the cases, in general, males (60.21%), from 15 to 59 years of age (75.31%) and with low education (66.32%). Most were known through spontaneous demand (56.13%) and mostly multibacillary leprosy (60.94%), with a predominance of the borderline clinical form (41.56%), which showed a growing trend in projection until 2020. The magnitude, the strength of morbidity and the trend of the disease remained high, with a high proportion of cases with grade II physical disability, raising the assumption that the hidden prevalence of the disease is high. The spatialization of the overall average detection rate identified a corridor and two clusters of municipalities, with highly hyperendemic characteristics, in addition to having shown that 2/3 of the state remained in hyperendemicity. Conclusion: It is concluded that the findings indicated that leprosy is a persistent endemic in the State of Pará as a serious public health problem.