This paper presents the results of a study carried out in eight municipalities of the state of Paraíba with the objective of analyzing the relationship between local services and the sanitary, epidemiological, political, social and economic contexts of these territories. The study, completed in July 2003, was developed by the Advisory Office for Decentralization of Sanitary Surveillance Actions from the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), and integrates the Redevisa Project (Sanitary Surveillance Decentralized Networking), whose proposal involves the identification of local and regional sanitary and epidemiological priorities for ANVISA to pass on financial resources. The research involved visits to municipalities to collect data and information. Results were analyzed in the light of both restricting and facilitating forces related to the delivery of Sanitary Surveillance Services, in terms of structure, work processes, management, political context and financial resources. The study explicitly revealed the deficient interaction between the work of the Sanitary Surveillance authorities researched and the environment where they operate, and identified important restrictive factors for local sanitary control. This article presents the driving ideas of the research, the results from the analysis, as well as the proposed approach for the recognition and systematization of indispensable information for Sanitary Surveillance planning.
Sanitary Surveillance; Health planning; Epidemiology
