Políticas públicas de informação em saúde e doenças tropicais negligenciadas no Brasil: uma análise da qualidade da informação dos acidentes por animais peçonhentos no Município de Feira de Santana-Ba

Abstract

This research aimed to evaluate the quality of information of accidents caused by poisonous animals, reported to the Information System for Notifiable Diseases (Sinan), between 2007-2013, in Feira de Santana-BA. These accidents have a high morbidity and mortality in developing and underdeveloped countries. Its medical importance, in particular, snakebites, led the World Health Organization (WHO) insert them in the list of neglected tropical diseases for reasons ranging from the difficulty in access to and effectiveness of antivenom serum to the aspect of underreporting and quality information on accidents and deaths. In Brazil, although the incidence of both accidents as deaths rise sharply, such accidents are not officially considered to be neglected. Understanding the strategic importance of health information as a basic resource for identifying problems in the population's health situation, the quality of information of health information systems it is essential for decision making at various levels of government. Nevertheless, numerous studies have pointed out problems in the quality of health information generated and made available in Brazil, among which the information notified Sinan on envenomations. In this descriptive study, time series, the quality was measured by means of Completeness and Consistency dimensions, which helped confirm that there is an urgent need for education and training of health workers due to the results. Another finding refers to the inconsistencies in the three documents that guide the completion of the notification and investigation forms the Ministry of Health: (i) Instrument for completing the investigation form of envenomations, (ii) Roadmap for use of Sinan Net , analysis of the quality of basic data and epidemiological and operational indicators calculations, and (iii) Data Dictionary - Sinan Net - version 4.0. It was identified that there is no similarity in the guidelines of the mandatory and essential fields in these documents. Moreover, they were observed for at least two other ways that make accidents neglected venomous animals in Brazil. First, the antivenom sera do not meet WHO's prerogative to regionalize its production process, and second, the current National Programme for Control of Venomous Bites is not ruled by an ordered set of procedures in order to have goals, criteria for evaluation of actions, budget allocation, among others. As a way of suggestion to address problems related to accidents by venomous animals, was considered: a review of official documents of the Ministry of Health that guide the notification in order to make them cohesive, the proposal to set up a production policy regionalised sera, changing the scope of the current accident control program, and the inclusion of accidents and neglected within the federal government.