The term Occupational Health refers to a field that aims to understand the relationship between work and health/disease process. Fiotec supports two projects of the National School of Public Health Sergio Arouca (ENSP/Fiocruz), coordinated by Luiz Carlos Fadel de Vasconcellos, which together train public officials (basic course) and occupational health surveillance multipliers. The projects aim to educate participants about the importance of the issue.

The basic course consists of employees of the Unified Health System (SUS) at all levels, at least from the primary school. After training in the basic course, students from the healthcare area and having a higher education degree may be designated by the State and Regional Reference Centers in Workers' Health (Cerest) to participate in the multiplier course. Graduates in multiplier course become teachers of the basic course. "It's a cycle, structured to create an awareness of the importance of occupational health surveillance", said Jacqueline Caldas, who coordinates the project.

The application sites of the courses are also indicated by the Ministry of Health, which monitors the sites where professionals should be trained in occupational health surveillance. Although it happens in several cities, it is mostly concentrated in the North, Northeast and Midwest, which are priority sites. More than 600 professionals have been trained in basic courses, and sixty professionals have been trained in the multiplier course. It has been so successful that there are places sites the coordination to apply for the course. 

Worker's health 

The issue of workers' health is still little known, but the problem reaches a considerable number of people. On average, 700 thousand occupational diseases and accidents are recorded every year in Brazil. 

The Workers' Health Surveillance (Visat) should play a central role in action on the determinants of health problems of workers. Surveillance is considered a strategy within the SUS to confront situations that harm the health of the working population, comprised of coordinated intervention in three dimensions: health promotion, prevention of diseases and accidents and curative care.

Thus, it is extremely important to have skilled professionals paying attention to this issue. In this sense, the courses are a strategy of the Ministry of Health for knowledge on the subject in order to prevent occupational accidents and diseases.