Agentes comunitários de saúde e COVID-19: desafios e percepções laborais na pandemia em Fortaleza-Ce.

Abstract

COVID-19 is an acute respiratory illness, which was first reported in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. Due to factors of globalization and the fact that it has a high contagion rate, COVID-19 has caused a global pandemic. Several countries have implemented a range of interventions to reduce transmission of the virus and stop the rapid spread of the pandemic. According to the study carried out at Imperial College London, the combination of control measures can reduce the peak demand for medical care by two thirds, also reducing deaths by half. In Brazil, the Primary Health Care (PHC) of the Unified Health System (SUS), which includes the Community Health Agent (ACS), has achieved greater diffusion in the Brazilian territory, since these are professionals with the form more practical contact with the population, knowing its area of activity and its enrolled population. However, the PHC lacked a high capacity to identify potentially serious cases in advance, permeating a very specific demand. Henceforth, the health education process needed to be significantly improved, as a result of logistical and space-time constraints, such as social isolation itself and the wide dissemination of false and harmful news. The study reveals that community agents had a lot of difficulties to carry out their educational process in health, both in material levels such as lack of protective equipment and reliable information materials, both in supra-material levels such as psychological exhaustion and work overload. The perception of these professionals was impacted when they perceived a professional devaluation.