Hanseníase: desafios ao diagnóstico nas unidades básicas de saúde

Abstract

Brazil is today one of the countries with highest prevalence rate of leprosy in the world. For this reason, this subject is considered not less prominent in discussions of the efficiency of brazilian public health. For decades, it became clear that the diagnosis of this disease, when not made timely and accurately, causes large morbidity among those affected. This study aims to conduct a narrative review on the challenges of diagnosing leprosy in primary health care, comparing it with the experience from the PSF Canoeiro, Araçuaí, Minas Gerais. The results showed that there are peculiarities in relation to professional preparation for the diagnosis of cases at the primary care unit, highlighting the need for an educational program focused on the professionals issues, and health education activities aimed at the population in general, to detect new cases. As a way to ease the problem, we proposed a continued educational program with analysis of clinical cases aimed to prepare the teams for early diagnosis of leprosy, and also to educational activities in health units, in order to attend users of the towns primary health attention.