Vulnerabilidades Sociais e Indicadores Ambientais em Área Rural e suas Implicações na Propagação da Doença de Chagas: Um Estudo no Assentamento Barra Bonita, Estado do Tocantins

Abstract

Chagas' disease is considered a neglected disease that affects underdeveloped countries of high social poverty, due to places marked by the lack of access to health, education and decent housing. Chagas disease affects the population living in rural and urban areas, but outbreaks of the disease in rural areas have been growing over the years, according to data extracted from Data Sus and UFT / EBSERH. This growth is due to the ingestion of typical fruits from the northern region of the country, causing Chagas disease acutely, but in the same region it is still possible to verify environmental indicators that demonstrate the risk for the development of the disease in its vector form, such as houses poorly built, deforestation and wild animals around the home. In addition to the presence of environmental indicators, the rural population becomes more socially vulnerable; Vulnerability is understood as social exclusion, which affects the lack of opportunities for these people in different ways. Thus, the lack of opportunities is intrinsically linked to social development, access to the “capabilities” that enable people to lead a more dignified life, such as living free from communicable diseases. Thus, the objective of the research was thus defined: to analyze social vulnerabilities and environmental indicators in the Barra Bonita settlement, in the municipality of Carmolândia, state of Tocantins, and its implications with the appearance of Chagas Disease, being discussed through the theory of Amartya Sen, on expanding capabilities and substantive freedom. This is a descriptiveexploratory field study, using qualitative and quantitative research, where 19 lots of PA Barra Bonita and 32 interviewed participants were analyzed. It was used for data surveys and methodological procedures: bibliographic research, semi-structured questionnaire, form and photo-documentation. The results presented show that the residents of PA Barra Bonita identify the risks of transmission by Chagas Disease orally, so they are still weakened in terms of information about the environmental indicators that spread the disease in a vectorial way. As for the sociodemographic results of the interviewees, it was possible to observe that most are limited in terms of low income and low level of education, however those, whose income and education were higher, managed to respond better in relation to the knowledge of the Triatomínio, or that is, they are able to prevent themselves in face of the risk of developing the disease. Thus, we conclude that there is a lack of better accesses in PA Barra Bonita that guarantee the expansion of the residents' capacities, since from the moment they expand their incomes, schooling, better housing and access to health education, consequently, they will be expanding their capacities of choices, thus avoiding or eliminating the indicators for the spread of Chagas disease