Official information systems for cryptococcal meningitis, state of Rio de Janeiro, Southeastern Brazil.

The study aimed to compare the epidemiological profile of crytococcal meningitis in different information systems, thus assessing to what extent the profile available in the Sistema de Informação de Agravos de Notificação (Information System for Notifiable Diseases) reflected cryptococcal meningitis occurrences in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Southeastern Brazil, between 2002 and 2004. That database was compared to a new database comprised of cryptococcal meningitis cases from this System, from the Assessoria de Meningite da Secretaria de Saúde do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (State Department of Health Meningitis Advisory Committee), and from the Instituto Estadual de Infectologia São Sebastião (State Institute of Infectious Diseases) laboratory records. The System detected 65.7% of the cases present in the new database. The percentage of patients with AIDS as a pre-existing disease was similar in both databases (26% and 24.9%). Thus, even though cryptococcal meningitis incidence is underreported in the System, the profile of notified cases reflects the profile of the total number of cases.