Historical and member environmental aspects related to the occurrence of schistosomiasis in the municipality of Pindamonhangaba, SP. / Aspectos históricos e sócio ambientais relativos à ocorrência da esquistossomose no município de Pindamonhangaba - SP

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

04/03/2009

RESUMO

The urbanization and the occupation of spaces in a disordered way can contribute for important changes in the environment, favoring the pollution and the use of natural resources, and contributing for the proliferation of some parasitic diseases, in special waterborne and vector-borne diseases. Schistosomiasis, one of these diseases, is caused by a trematode parasite, Schistosoma mansoni, which requires a freshwater snail to serve as intermediate host. This is an illness of large distribution and represents an important problem of public health in Brazil. This study was carried out in Pindamonhangaba, city located in the Valley of the Paraíba river, where the first cases of schistosomiasis were reported in 1955; with great irrigated rice fields and different types of agricultural activities, requiring streams and irrigation channels, the region showed some environmental aspects that favored the proliferation of snails, which used to shed high number of cercariae, due to the poor sanitation conditions of the population and contamination of the environment. The objective of the present study was to verify the occurrence and distribution of schistosomiasis cases in the different localities of the city, by relating the data collected in the last 15 years (1992 to 2006) with the observed environmental transformations. A total of 275 cases were notified in the studied period, and the localities with higher number of cases were Colméia and Mombaça, respectively with 144 and 29 cases. The prevalence indices, in 100.000 inhabitants, varied from 57.24 to 3.58, respectively in 1992 and 2005. A low prevalence was also observed in a sero-epidemiological survey conducted with children from 2nd to 4th elementary school levels, living in localities historically considered as areas of risk for the disease; from the total of 544 blood samples submitted to detection of anti-Schistosoma antibodies, only one showed to be positive. The reduction in the number of schistosomiasis cases can be related to the changes in the habits of the population and the urbanization processes, with substitution of the agricultural activities for those related to the business and the industry; it was observed the mechanization of the rice fields and substitution of the farming for pastures areas. Improvements in the basic sanitation conditions, associated to the increasing of the scholar index can also be contributed for the control of the schistosomiasis.

ASSUNTO(S)

epidemiologia esquistossomose mansoni sorologia urbanização schistosomiasis mansoni epidemiology urbanization serology doencas infecciosas e parasitarias

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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