[Description of duplicate records held on the Notifiable Diseases Information System, Brazil, 2008-2009].

OBJECTIVE: to describe the proportion of duplicate records held on the Brazilian Notifiable Diseases Information System, 2008-2009.

METHODS: identification of duplicate records of dengue, leprosy, visceral leishmaniasis and cutaneous leishmaniasis, meningitis and tuberculosis was conducted using Reclink III(r); the proportion of duplicate records was calculated by geographical region, state and municipal population size categories.

RESULTS: visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and meningitis had higher proportions of duplicate notification (5.3% and 3.6%, respectively) whilst leprosy had the lowest (0.7%); the states with highest repetitions were Rio Grande do Norte (VL 6.8% and leprosy 5.1%), Rio de Janeiro (tuberculosis 2.5% and meningitis 4.9%) and Goiás (dengue 2.0% and meningitis 7.2%).

CONCLUSION: the Northeast region had the highest proportion of duplicate records for four of the six diseases analyzed; with the exception of dengue, percentage repetition was lower in municipalities with larger population size.