Infected barbers are found in Bairro de SP: ‘worrying’

The neighborhood has the presence of wild animals that are natural reservoirs of the parasite, such as Sarês, throughout the district of Butantã, where just over 350 thousand inhabitants reside. The region has ecological corridors that extend through the metropolitan region and to the southern and northern regions of the city.

“Instituto Butantan himself has made an important withdrawal of trees for their expansion, while in the surroundings there is a gigantic verticalization, with the construction of buildings in place of houses, with suppression of vegetation and it all alter the environment, shifting the Sarês of their habitat natural and favoring the barber’s contact with humans. The most worrying thing is that if no attitude is taken by the Health Department regarding alerting the population and restructuring the activities of the Endemic Control Superintendence (SUPEN) to be conducted in an articulated manner with municipal surveillances, This can result in human infections, if they are no longer occurring, “says Helena Dutra Lutgens, president of APQC.

The Sucen, cited by lutgens, was one of the state research institutes extinct by decree in 2020. Part of its attributions was directed to state disease control coordinators and municipal epidemiological surveillances. According to APQC, this design is insufficient to account for the need for specific research and prevents more detailed monitoring and proper training of municipal teams.

There are records of more than a hundred barbers cataloged by the Sucen team between 2014 and 2019, according to the news collection FAPESP Magazineapparently discontinued control, therefore, with the emptying of the Superintendency building, in the neighborhood of Pinheiros, it is not monitored if infected animals had contact with human blood, indicating the need for testing of populations.

In a statement, the State Department of Health reported that, since 2019, the circulation of the Trypanosoma cruzi Throughout the metropolis of São Paulo, and that so far there have been no cases of infection in humans in the urban area. “In addition, CCD technicians conduct training with health agents in the municipality of São Paulo for the identification of the triathomine insect (barber), to perform intestinal content examinations to verify positivity for Trypanosoma cruzienvironment management and chemical control, when necessary, “added the agency.

About the Butantan Institute, the secretary stated that “the case was monitored and, according to a biologist’s technical report of the Zoonosis Control Center, the barber’s appearance in the Lemos Monteiro Pavilion was an isolated case, given the place where it was found. The monitoring continues to be performed with a technical team by a company hired for pest control “.