Fiotec participated in the launch of the book “Ten Years Fighting Malaria in the Brazilian Amazon,” which collects stories of the project “Municipal Supporters of Malaria Prevention, Control, and Elimination.” The event was hosted at the Ministry of Health auditorium in Brasília, on September 26, with the presence of the project supporters, the coordinator Marcela Dourado, and representatives of Fiotec and Fiocruz.

The paper gathers records of the action on malaria in the north region of the country, the most affected by the disease. According to the general coordinator of Arthropod-borne viruses Surveillance, Cássio Peterka, we must maintain an active surveillance to achieve elimination: “when there is a low viral load, that is when we must maintain the surveillance so that the protozoon is not reintegrated.”

During the event, thank you videos by the municipal administrators were transmitted in honor of the supporters who were present. Peterka also read two quotes from the book, including a text by one of the supporters, Arthur do Nascimento, who highlights the importance of the project. Check:

“There is a connection between here to there. The technical stiffness meets human sensitivity, two ends of a current qualified around one goal: to eliminate malaria from Brazil. That connection is the municipal supporter of the control and elimination of malaria, representative of a much larger, universal, system, that makes no distinction between human beings and reaches every corner of each state in the country, in such way that no private service can. That is the Unified Health System (SUS).”

In addition to the aforementioned professionals, the representatives of the Office of Health Surveillance (SVS/MS); the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO); the National Council Health Secretaries (Conass); the National Council of Municipal Offices (Conasems); the Special Office for Indigenous Healthcare (Sesai) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were also present.

Watch the thank you video by the project coordinator, Marcela Dourado.

Fiotec acts on the project management

In addition to being responsible for the program management, Fiotec manages the resources destined for the initiative and contracts professionals to act in the cities of the Amazon. These teams are fit to analyse data and lead the disease control interventions, based on the protocols of the National Program of Malaria Control.

The idea is that the knowledge in epidemiological surveillance is passed along gradually from the supporters to the state and municipal management teams, thus assuring its autonomy in malaria prevention and combat.