Scientists Suggests Leprosy Must Be Treated From The Beginning
Brazil is the second country in the world in cases of leprosy under treatment. There are almost 20,000 cases per year in the country and the disease is considered neglected. In the world, there are 200 thousand cases of the disease.
“In 2007, the World Health Organization included leprosy among the neglected tropical diseases, because most occur in the tropics and these are diseases that mainly affect the population with low visibility and political representation, in a vicious cycle of poverty and disease”, he comments. Maria Angela Bianconcini Trindade, dermatologist at the Hospital das Clínicas of the Faculty of Medicine of USP and researcher at the Laboratory of Medical Investigation in Dermatology and Immunodeficiencies (LIM/56).
These and other aspects of leprosy are dealt with in the book Teaching and Research in Attention to Leprosy in the State of São Paulo , organized, in addition to Maria Angela, by Tereza Etsuko da Costa Rosa, researcher and professor of the professional master’s degree in Collective Health and director of the Research and Development Center for the SUS at the Health Institute – SES-SP, Maria do Carmo Castiglioni and Selma Lancman, professors at the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Faculty of Medicine at USP.
disease that persists
Leprosy has been included in primary care health services since 2008 and its treatment is free and effective: “The World Health Organization currently places leprosy among the neglected tropical diseases that are possible to eliminate, precisely because they have a specific and willing treatment. in basic health units, but the biggest problem with leprosy is that drug treatment represents a fundamental part of the actions for coping with it, but it is not enough. This has been available for more than four decades, so there is an urgent need for multidisciplinary approaches that intertwine health with history, geography, education and anthropology”.
Even with the possibilities of treatment, the disease continues to be a concern. According to Maria Angela, there are about 200,000 cases diagnosed per year in Brazil: “It is a disease that, if there was more publicity about what it is, the initial signs and symptoms, the population would also seek more health services and also there was not so much turnover of professionals. That is why the diagnosis, even with all this arsenal of basic care, of specific medication, is carried out in disabling and transmissible forms, so it is an important factor to maintain the endemic disease”.
stigmata
Leprosy is a disease full of stigmas, even today, when treatments are available. “This historical-social aspect of the disease increases the stigma, people, when they have a symptom, do not even seek the service, because of the stigma. Therefore, the treatment, the inclusion of the multidisciplinary team help a lot to keep the patient in treatment, because, even when the diagnosis is made, people may not want to continue the treatment. The multidisciplinary team, with a psychologist, social worker, pharmacist, nurse, occupational therapist and physiotherapist, collaborates a lot so that these patients in treatment bring their family members to be examined, this reception is very important for a stigmatizing disease”, concludes Maria Angela.