Evaluation of the SNVE (Brazilian National Epidemiological Surveillance System) for Leptospirosis - Brazil, 2007.

Leptospirosis is an acute zoonosis which can present itself from asymptomatic to severe forms, with lethality around 12% in Brazil. Since 1993, it is branded as a communicable disease, and since 1997 the suspect cases are reported to the Sistema Nacional de Agravos de Notificação (Brazilian national communicable diseases system - SINAN). The main goals of the Sistema Nacional de Vigilância Epidemiológica for leptospirosis (Brazilian national epidemiological surveillance system - SNVE Lepto) includes reducing the lethality rate of the disease andimplement preventive and control measures. The continuous assessment of the system, based on usefulness and quality criteria promote its improvement and better understanding on the disease. This way, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative aspects, and the usefulness of the SNVE Lepto, along with the changes in the information system (SINAN-Web to SINAN-Net). The data source was the SINAN database in the years 2006 and 2007. The results shown that the SNVE Lepto was considered complex, flexible, with good data quality, low representativeness, timeliness, acceptability, sensitivity and usefulness. Thus, we suggest reducing the number of variables on the investigation form; stimulate the completeness of variables added in 2007 and encourage the early data entry of the reported cases and outbreaks in the SINAN.