THE BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION IN THE LAST DECADE ABOUT MORTALITY OF ELDER PEOPLE BY KALAAZAR.

The elder population has become a challenge to the State due to their growth in the last two decades, being no longer a simple prediction but becoming a reality. One of the characteristics of the elderly population is its greatest weakness when struck by chronic and infectious diseases. Visceral leishmaniasis or kala-azar is a chronic and severe desease, and can be fatal. Objective: Due to increased propensity for diseases of aging, and the population increases, it is important to analyze the scientific production in Brazil on the impact of kala-azar in the elderly. Method: review of scientific articles published between 2000 to 2011,whose researches were nationals and are available as full text journals on the platform of the Virtual Health Library (VHL) about mortality of the elderly by kala-azar . Results: two articles met the criteria for analysis, and showed that, despite the number of elderly people infected with visceral leishmaniasis is low, the mortality rate is high. Discussion: there is a need for research about the relationship between the elder and kala-azar.