Relationship between syphilis cases and family health strategy in northeastern Brazil

Relação entre os casos de sífilis e a estratégia saúde da família no nordeste brasileiro

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to verify the relationships between the advancing of coverage of the Family Health Strategy in the nine northeastern states and the rates of detection of syphilis in pregnant women and congenital between the years 2008 and 2017.
Methods: Observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study, in which the detection rates for gestational syphilis and congenital in the nine states of the Northeast and this region as a whole were correlated with the respective annual averages Family Health Strategy coverage. For that, Pearson's correlation coefficient test was performed for these two variables, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 25 software.
Results: The statistical analysis of the state data made it possible to identify that, as well as in the grouped data of the region, as the Family Health Strategy coverage increased, the detection rate of syphilis cases in pregnant women and congenital also increased significantly in most states, and in the Northeast region entirely.
Conclusions: The Unified Health System through the Family Health Strategy has made great advances related to the monitoring of pregnancy, puerperium and child development as in the early diagnosis of infections like syphilis. However, in addition to the diagnosis, significant improvements are needed in the treatment and prevention of these diseases in the Northeast region.