Objective: to evaluate community health agents in the identification of individuals suspected of leprosy in their coverage areas through spatial analysis. Methods: a cross-sectional, descriptive, and quantitative study. We used the cases reported in the Information System of Notifiable Diseases, 2006-2014. We included 24 agents from basic health units located in areas of a low, medium, and high degree of leprosy detection. Results: 83% of the agents recognized leprosy as an infectious-contagious disease. However, in the transmission and surveillance of contact, only 50% demonstrated to know. During the home visit, 19 suspected cases had spots on the skin, 13 with neurological changes such as pain, numbness, and tingling. Conclusion: limited knowledge can hinder the approach of the agent with the individual with suspicion of the disease, reflecting in actions for the control of leprosy, since this agent greatly amplifies the capillarity of the health system in the active search for new cases of the disease.
Introdução: A Hanseníase ou Mal de Hansen (MH) foi descoberta em 1874 pelo médico norueguês Gerhard Armauer Hansen. Atualmente, sabe-se que é uma doença infectocontagiosa, de evolução crônica e curável, que se manifesta, principalmente, por lesões cutâneas com a diminuição de sensibilidade térmica, dolorosa e tátil causada pelo bacilo álcool-ácido resistente, intracelular obrigatório, denominado Mycobacterium leprae (ARAÚJO et al, 2014;NATH;SAINI;VALLURI, 2015). Frente a um cenário de hiperendemicidade histórica no Pará, com precária taxa de avaliação de contatos intradomiciliares (34%), evidências da existência de focos ativos de transmissão não diagnosticados, além de uma baixa cobertura do programa saúde da família no Estado (42%),
The objective of this study was to correlate the geographic scope of the Basic Health Units with the spatial distribution of leprosy cases in the hyperendemic municipality of Santarém, the western region of the state of Pará. The methodology used for this study was the mapping of the territorial coverage of the UBS, its scope, that is, the area of action of the Community Health Agents (ACS), and the cases of leprosy from the period 2003 to 2013, for this was used a Geographic Information System (GIS) to visualize the spatial distribution of leprosy cases about the coverage and coverage of the UBS in the municipality. We have resulted in shapefiles developments in coverage and coverage of UBS and the distribution of leprosy cases. Through the use of spatial analysis, the areas discovered by the UBS were identified, as well as the spatial distribution of leprosy cases.
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