ACESSO À SAÚDE NA REGIÃO DE FRONTEIRA BRASIL-BOLÍVIA: UM ESTUDO DE CASO SOBRE ACESSO AO EXAME DE TOMOGRAFIA COMPUTADORIZADA DURANTE A PANDEMIA DA COVID-19

• Autor(a) principal: Pedro Paulo Saad Costa
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UFMS
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio.ufms.br/handle/123456789/6356
• topic: fronteira; saúde; tomografia; covid-19; pandemia.

The year 2020 was marked by the beginning of the pandemic of coronavirus disease (COVID 19), an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which mainly affects the respiratory system. Chest imaging exams, especially Computed Tomography, were included in the complementary diagnosis and evaluation of infected patients. To expand prevention actions, social distancing has become a prophylactic measure in the fight against the disease. In the first months of the pandemic, the rapid expansion of COVID-19 due to its high transmissibility, associated with high lethality rates, forced public authorities of several countries to take drastic actions, such as closing borders, which ended up for affecting fundamental rights and restricting the freedom of individuals in these regions. The motivation for this study was precisely due to the closure of the Corumba (Brazil) - Puerto Quijarro (Bolivia) border region, which had until that moment 03 (three) Computed Tomography scanners, only 01 (one) of them from the public health network, and all of them on the Brazilian side of the border. The perspective of understanding the phenomenon consisted of analyzing characteristics of coping with COVID-19 based on the access to Computed Tomography scan by the population of Corumba/MS and Puerto Quijarro/SC, Brazil-Bolivia border, in the period 2020-2021. Exploratory research was used, with a mixed methods approach through the quantification of Computed Tomography scans performed in the period before and during the pandemic in the municipal public health network of Corumba-MS, as well as the analysis of a questionnaire directed to health professionals (physicians) who worked during the first years of the pandemic in the region. There was a clear increase in the number of Computed Tomography scans performed in the years 2020 and 2021, drawing attention to the significant increase in examinations of the chest. There was also a preponderant increase in exams of patients referred from emergency services, in addition to a considerable decrease in outpatient exams. From the questionnaires, it was possible to infer that, despite the existence of guidelines recommended by medical societies worldwide, there was no homogeneity regarding the criteria used to request the exam. The analyzed data demonstrate a significant importance attributed to the Computed Tomography exam by health professionals in the evaluation of patients infected with COVID-19, especially for those with longer professional experience; on the other hand, the closure of the border and the lack of a Computed Tomography scanner on the Bolivian side may have prevented this exam from being equally accessible to the entire population of the region. It points out the need for specific training of health professionals on the rights and duties related to access to health services in a border region.