[Creation of a data bank for sustainability of leprosy post elimination]

São José do Rio Preto reached the World Health Organization goal eliminating leprosy as a Public Health problem in the year 2006, with a prevalence of 0.79/10,000 inhabitants. In order to warrant reliable information to promote management measures that keep this status, the aim of this study was to create a leprosy data bank in the city with information from 1998 to 2006. A data collection protocol was used and it contained 74 clinical-epidemiological variables that were gathered from primary and secondary sources. This work was initiated with 442 cases registered in the municipal control program database, from those 168 were excluded and 85 were inserted. There were 24 cases not notified in the National Information System (SINAN). The 74 variables collected will allow further studies about themes: epidemiological profiles, household contacts control, reactions and deficiencies, and others. The difficulties faced during the elaboration of the database were related to decoding medical files data and inconsistency in the SINAN. The frequent mistakes while entering the data weaken the information system and difficult the plan of precise actions regarding health. These facts are relevant to the quality of attention and the maintenance of the leprosy elimination status.