School Health Program: health education challenges for the prevention of Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya

Abstract

This article reflects on health education strategies for the prevention of Dengue, Zika, and Chikungunya within the School Health Program toward comprehensive health care of students of primary public education in schools, in partnership with the Primary Health Care Units. This national research is nested in a project called Arbocontrol and coordinated by the Faculty of Health Sciences of the University of Brasília, with support from the Ministry of Health, to combat and control arboviruses transmitted by Aedes aegypti. This qualitative study is based on the Foucauldian thinking of biopolitics. One hundred fifty-eight teachers and 117 health professionals from 16 municipalities in the five Brazilian regions were interviewed. The results indicated that the implementation of the PSE does not incorporate community knowledge into the actions. The content-oriented educational model establishes, a priori, what should be addressed, and the fragile intersectoral articulation for the planning of actions has hampered its effectiveness. Health education is still understood as an informative process for self-care, fostered by biopolitical strategies of disciplining the bodies of subjects or establishing their subjectivities for self-care, making them accountable for their health.