Análise de detecção e controle da leptospirose no município de Santa Vitória do Palmar, RS: um estudo qualitativo com trabalhadores da saúde

Abstract

Leptospirosis is a neglected disease with a high incidence in Brazil, with the south and southeast regions registering the highest number of cases. The state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), located in the southern region, stands out for its high incidence rate, with most cases occurring in coastal or predominantly agricultural regions. To address this specific problem, this dissertation sought to analyze the measures adopted for the detection and control of leptospirosis cases in primary care and health surveillance in the municipality of Santa Vitória do Palmar, located in Rio Grande do Sul. For this, a case study was carried out using a qualitative approach, from August 2022 to March 2023, and individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with primary care, management, and health surveillance workers. From this, nine categories of analysis were constructed, in which the workers alerted to the non-specificity of the actions of control and prevention of leptospirosis in the city; importance of including the disease in health actions; and negligence regarding the planning of actions by the state, with four categories being built to describe the perspectives. In their perspective, there is a mismatch between the actions of detection and control of leptospirosis caused by insufficient resources as well as the absence of specific planning for leptospirosis, which favors forgetting the disease in the municipality. Although the results do not represent the national territory, they can serve as a starting point for other studies on leptospirosis, allowing raising questions about the impact on locations with a high risk of the disease, and stimulating the production of interventions on a larger scale.