Quality of the supply water, family health strategy and incidence of diarrhea: an approach in two neighborhoods of the municipality of Paraty - RJ

Abstract

The health-disease process is developed in the historicallybuilt space, having as parameters environmental, cultural,geographic, biological, sanitary and socioeconomicfactors. In this context, it is known that acute infectiousdiarrhea can be determined by several factors, includingpoor microbiological quality supply water. This workhad the objective of checking the possible influence ofthe microbiological quality of supply water and of thecoverage provided by the Family Health Program on theincidence of acute diarrhea. Data from two neighborhoodsof the municipality of Paraty, RJ were comparativelystudied during the period from August 2003 through July2004. One of the neighborhoods (Parque Imperial) wassupplied by partially treated water (chlorinated) and withoutthe coverage of the Family Health Program (FHP),while another one (Tarituba) was supplied by non-treatedwater and covered by the FHP. The study showed thatthe incidence of diarrhea in the period under analysiswas higher (4.17%) in the neighborhood where the watersupplied was partially treated (50% of the months in satisfactoryconditions) and had no FHP coverage than inthe neighborhood where the water was not treated (only10% of the months in satisfactory conditions) but therewas FHP coverage(diarrhea incidence: 1.57%). In bothareas, the incidence of diarrhea was higher in the monthsduring which the samples of the water analyzed were innot in satisfactory conditions. Based on these results, onecan conclude that the quality of the supply water was notthe only factor determining acute diarrhea in the areasanalyzed, but it is believed that it may have contributed tothe incidence of this condition, considering the increasein the incidence during the months when the quality ofthe water was not satisfactory. In addition, it is believedthat FHP coverage may have positively influenced theindicators of diarrhea in Tarituba, since the area presenteda lower incidence of diarrhea even with the microbiologicalindicators being worse than at Parque Imperial.New studies must be undertaken to clarify other factorswhich determine the occurrence of acute diarrhea in theareas analyzed, including correlation analyses of sanitationconditions, schooling and FHP coverage.