Photo: Arnoldo Santos/FOHAM
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In the state of Amazonas, 12 municipalities will receive teams from Dermato Saúde Amazonas, which will intensify active research and treatment of patients with leprosy and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The municipality of Presidente Figueiredo was the first to adopt the initiative, last Monday (12).
The initiative is from the State Ministry of Health (SES-AM), through the Alfredo da Mata Hospital Foundation (Foham). The team is made up of several health professionals such as nurses, nursing technicians, dermatologists, physiotherapists, biochemists and pharmacists, explains Foham’s head of disease control and epidemiology, Valderisa Pedrosa.
“So a very professional team goes to the municipalities according to the needs of each municipality that we have chosen. We do monitoring, in addition to diagnosing and treating patients with neglected skin diseases, leprosy is our flagship and other skin diseases that are considered neglected,” he explains.
The head of the department estimates that the intention at this first moment is to screen 7.5% of the general population in the selected municipalities, so that the teams will continue to conduct assessments until the goal of 20% of the screened citizens is reached. .
Valderisa Pedrosa explains that the municipalities were chosen based on their respective epidemiological scenarios. “We make an assessment that we call scenarios, using these indicators such as detection rate, contacts screened, physical disability assessment carried out by the municipality and based on that, we create these scenarios and select these indicators.”
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