GEOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION SYSTEM APPLIED TO PUBLIC HEALTH
WAYNER V. SOUZA
Centro de Pesquisa Aggeu Magalhães - Fiocruz, C.P. 7472, 50670-420 Recife, PE
Presented by HELIO B. COUTINHO
Where Public Health Services decided to incorporate the ''TERRITORIAL APPROACH'' as an essential element in the analysis and intervention on population health problems, new perspectives to the study of the extreme social disparity that exists in many countries worldwide were opened. The study of standard of living and health of human groups, according to their place of residence, becomes a methodological alternative to identify and analyze their necessities, and in consequence make possible to overcome these iniquities. Recent advances in computational techniques of data analysis and mapping, became themselves important tools to support the development of these studies and allowed the improvement of new proposals. A field of application for those new techniques is undoubtfully the study of distribution and epidemiologic characterization of the occurrence of endemics in urban areas, aiming the formulation of new control strategies. Among these endemics, Lymphatic filariasis occurs in a wide geographic distribution in greater Recife, Brazil, and the intensity of transmission is a real and potential threat to public health in affected communities. Intervention strategies that have been adopted in Recife, for the last 50 years, were characterized by actions without considering the social context in which persons are living and so with limitted efficacy. Taking into account these evidences, this study intends to elaborate a new strategy of intervention in which the identification of Risk Spaces will be considered. This intervention model will allow us to identify the prioritary (priority?) populational groups according to the risk of being infected, taking into consideration the intrinsic relationship between the behavior of the endemy and the space where the disease occurs. ( May 18, 2001 )
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
08 Oct 2001 -
Date of issue
Sept 2001
