História social da hanseníase no nordeste de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Leprosy is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, bacillus or Hansen. It mainly affects the skin and peripheral nerves but also manifests as a systemic disease affecting joints, eyes, testicles, lymph nodes and other organs. Is of great importance to public health due to its magnitude and its high power incapacitating, affecting especially the economically active age group. It is a public health problem in Brazil, which ranks second in absolute numbers of disease worldwide. Specifically in Minas Gerais, according to 2009 data, there were 1873 new cases of leprosy. The Northeast of Minas Gerais, in turn, recorded 228 new cases this year, representing a pattern of very high endemicity, according to the Ministry of Health parameters. Historically no record of the disease in Egypt four thousand and three hundred years before Christ. In the medieval period, lepers had to wear a veil covering her facedisfigured and a bell denouncing his presence, but were also made marks on the body of these patients, which resulted stigma on the disease. The objective of this study was to analyze the history of leprosy in the Northeast of Minas Gerais, with reference to the public policy of the state disease control, from 1915 to 1962. The clipping chronologicalrefers respectively to the year of establishment of the Commission of Leprosy Prophylaxis and the year of termination of compulsory isolation in Brazil. Justified by the importance of leprosy since the era under study affects a large number of individuals in the Northeast of Minas Gerais. Moreover, it is the stigma of the disease and the scarcity of studies on the history of the disease region. Is a historical research. In addition to the method chosen, we chose to interviews with former inmates of theColony Santa Izabel, from the study area. The document analysis and interviews were done according to the criteria Padilha & Borenstein (2005). The findings allowed us to know the history of leprosy in the Northeast of Minas Gerais. It was observed that the highest political expression of the disease in the region was linked to the extensivecensus of leprosy, as well as the Working Groups. It is considered that the high migratory movement, which was the occupation of space, coupled with economic instability, the low standard of living and housing, the construction of the social stigma of the disease and lack of health services structured to cause permanent cycle transmission of leprosy in the Northeast of Minas Gerais.