Health Surveillance within the Primary Healthcare scope to face the Covid-19 pandemics: a document review

Abstract

Health Surveillance strategies are crucial to organize a strong national response against the coronavirus disease 2019. In Brazil, it is necessary to think about the integration of the Primary Health Care (PHC) and local Health Surveillance. This review aims to analyze the normative documents produced by the Federal Government on this topic. Official documents published by the Federal Government were reviewed, finding 21 related. It was identified a greater support for implementation of intramural actions related to detection and notification of cases and contacts than for active search of community Covid-19 cases, local educational actions, community engagement, strengthening adherence to preventive measures, improvement of information sharing, or support of community’s social facilities. Little was produced about the articulation of PHC with local surveillance teams. Our findings reinforce what was found by other authors, who attested the insufficient importance attributed to PHC in Brazil, especially with regard to Health Surveillance actions. Unfortunately, our country has stood out for one of the worst managements of the health crisis in the world, and there is an urgent need to strengthen surveillance actions based on a strong, capillary, and community-based PHC.

Estratégias de enfrentamento da COVID-19 na atenção primária: estudo de método misto

“…A APS, no contexto pandêmico, enfrentou dificuldades, como mudanças no modelo de trabalho e revolução da saúde digital, e precisou planejar ações para diferentes momentos, de acordo com o cenário epidemiológico 8 . Além disso, reduziu as atividades inerentes aos processos para a contenção da COVID-19, mostrou a necessidade de os sistemas públicos de saúde serem repensados e a importância da APS com ações vinculadas à vigilância em saúde 9,10 .…”

Coping strategies for COVID-19 primary care: a mixed method study

“…In the pandemic context, PHC faced difficulties, such as changes in the work model and the digital health revolution, and had to plan actions for different times, according to the epidemiological scenario 8 . In addition, it reduced the activities inherent to the processes for the containment of COVID-19 and showed the need for public health systems to be rethought and the importance of PHC with actions related to health surveillance 9,10 .…”