Analysis of the Perception of Brazilian Medical Students about Chagas Disease
Everton Rodrigues Clovis,
Daniel Cesaretto Cristal,
Giulia Montanari,
João Pedro Graceti Machado,
Yago Visinho dos Reis,
Dayse da Silva Rocha,
Kaio Cesar Chaboli Alevi
Affiliations
Everton Rodrigues Clovis
Laboratório de Entomologia em Saúde Pública, Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Doutor Arnaldo 715, São Paulo 01246-904, Brazil
Daniel Cesaretto Cristal
Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP), Rua Dr. Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin 250, Distrito de Rubião Júnior, Botucatu 18618-689, Brazil
Giulia Montanari
Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP), Rua Dr. Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin 250, Distrito de Rubião Júnior, Botucatu 18618-689, Brazil
João Pedro Graceti Machado
Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP), Rua Dr. Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin 250, Distrito de Rubião Júnior, Botucatu 18618-689, Brazil
Yago Visinho dos Reis
Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Estadual Paulista “Júlio de Mesquita Filho” (UNESP), Rua Dr. Antônio Celso Wagner Zanin 250, Distrito de Rubião Júnior, Botucatu 18618-689, Brazil
Dayse da Silva Rocha
Laboratório Nacional e Internacional de Referência em Taxonomia de Triatomíneos, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (FIOCRUZ), Av. Brasil 4365, Pavilhão Rocha Lima, sala 505, Rio de Janeiro 21040-360, Brazil
Kaio Cesar Chaboli Alevi
Laboratório de Entomologia em Saúde Pública, Departamento de Epidemiologia, Faculdade de Saúde Pública, Universidade de São Paulo, Avenida Doutor Arnaldo 715, São Paulo 01246-904, Brazil
Considering that health professionals at Brazil had doubts about the entomoepidemiological issues of Chagas disease (CD), and that many of them highlighted not feeling totally safe for clinical care, the knowledge of 281 Brazilian medical students was evaluated through a cross-sectional, descriptive, prospective, and quantitative research. Most students demonstrated that they knew about the etiological agent of CD (Trypanosoma cruzi), since 279 students answered the questionnaire correctly. Furthermore, the medical students demonstrated knowledge of the main form of transmission of the parasite, as 278 students associated CD transmission with triatomines. On the other hand, approximately 25 students did not associate CD transmission with triatomine feces. Besides that, these future health professionals had difficulties in relation to the treatment of CD, as more than half of the students (176) wrongly answered that CD “is not curable” or “is curable in the chronic phase”. Based on the results obtained that point out the difficulties medical students have with CD, there is a need for undergraduate medical courses to address the neglected diseases holistically because the National Curriculum Guidelines for the medical course require the training of competent health professionals capable of integrating the biological, psychological, social, and environmental dimensions.
