Relevância da educação em saúde para prevenção e controle da leishmaniose visceral: uma revisão integrativa

Abstract

Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is in frank and urbanization has become an important public health problem due to its high incidence and mortality. Therefore, it is necessary the training of professionals about the disease in order to improve the level of knowledge and increase their awareness on early detection of disease in order to start treatment immediately. Health education is a set of knowledge and practices for disease prevention and health promotion, and this must be with the effective participation of multidisciplinary teams. The objective of this study is to analyze the importance of health education for the notification, diagnosis and treatment of visceral leishmaniasis. The methodology used the integrative literature review. We selected six papers published in the databases SciELO and LILACS related to education in visceral leishmaniasis. In addition to the jobs available in the databases were included in the study of the manuals and guides surveillance on the proposed topic. It was evident in the results that educational materials about the disease are scarce and the level of knowledge about the LV is low among health professionals. The lack of information of the population contributes to the high lethality of the patient may be associated with lack of skilled health workers for early diagnosis and prompt treatment. Among the articles selected for study, it was found that the LV is confused with leptospirosis. We conclude that it is relevant to improve activities of health education aimed at LV in a continuing education process for the reduction of morbidity and mortality rates.