Temporal trend of mortality from infectious respiratory diseases in childhood in Minas Gerais, Brazil, 2000-2020.

Main results: From 2000 to 2020, there was a downward trend in mortality due to infectious respiratory disease in children living in Minas Gerais - even in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Implications for services: There was a reduction in child deaths due to respiratory infections; health services should be alerted as to the considerable presence of ill-defined or inconclusive codes (garbage codes) on death certificates.

Perspectives: It is necessary to maintain the effectiveness of health actions among the mother and child population and to improve the records held on the Mortality Information System, in order to enable better monitoring of mortality as well as to enable analytical studies to be conducted.

Objective: to analyze temporal trends in mortality due to infectious respiratory disease in children under 12 years old in Minas Gerais, Brazil, from 2000 to 2020.

Methods: this was an ecological study using data on infectious respiratory disease in children under 12 years old registered on the Mortality Information System; the variables studied were etiological agent, anatomical site of infection and sex; trends were analyzed by joinpoint regression.

Results: of the 4,688 registered deaths, the etiological agent of the disease was unspecified for 84.5% of them, and 88% were due to lower respiratory tract infections; there was a decreasing trend in deaths and in the proportion of deaths due to unspecified etiologic agents; in 2020, there was an increase in deaths with viral etiology and systemic involvement.

Conclusion: in addition to the change in the etiologic profile, there was a reduction in mortality due to infectious respiratory diseases in children, even considering 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic.