HEALTH PROBLEMS AWARENESS DURING TRAVEL AMONG FACULTY MEMBERS OF A LARGE UNIVERSITY IN LATIN AMERICA. PRELIMINARY REPORT

Health safety during trips is based on previous counseling, vaccination and prevention of infections, previous diseases or specific problems related to the destination. Our aim was to assess two aspects, incidence of health problems related to travel and the traveler’s awareness of health safety. To this end we phone-interviewed faculty members of a large public University, randomly selected from humanities, engineering and health schools. Out of 520 attempts, we were able to contact 67 (12.9%) and 46 (68.6%) agreed to participate in the study. There was a large male proportion (37/44, 84.1%), mature adults mostly in their forties and fifties (32/44, 72.7%), all of them with higher education, as you would expect of faculty members. Most described themselves as being sedentary or as taking occasional exercise, with only 15.9% (7/44) taking regular exercise. Preexisting diseases were reported by 15 travelers. Most trips lasted usually one week or less. Duration of the travel was related to the destination, with (12h) or longer trips being taken by 68.2% (30/44) of travelers, and the others taking shorter (3h) domestic trips. Most travelling was made by air (41/44) and only 31.8% (14/44) of the trips were motivated by leisure. Field research trips were not reported. Specific health counseling previous to travel was reported only by two (4.5%). Twenty seven of them (61.4%) reported updated immunization, but 11/30 reported unchecked immunizations. 30% (9/30) reported travel without any health insurance coverage. As a whole group, 6 (13.6%) travelers reported at least one health problem attributed to the trip. All of them were males travelling abroad. Five presented respiratory infections, such as influenza and common cold, one neurological, one orthopedic, one social and one hypertension. There were no gender differences regarding age groups, destination, type of transport, previous health counseling, leisure travel motivation or pre-existing diseases. Interestingly, the two cases of previous health counseling were made by domestic travelers. Our data clearly shows that despite a significant number of travel related health problems, these highly educated faculty members, had a low awareness of those risks, and a significant number of travels are made without prior counseling or health insurance. A counseling program conducted by a tourism and health professional must be implemented for faculty members in order to increase the awareness of travel related health problems.

Micro-organismos da subclasse Coccidia: resistência e implicações para o processamento de materiais de assistência à saúde

Este estudo teórico propõe uma reflexão sobre a resistência intrínseca da subclasse Coccidia, particularmente o gênero Cryptosporidium, considerado como um agente potencialmente patogênico para pacientes imunocomprometidos, e suas repercussões na prática assistencial. Atualmente, as diretrizes internacionais e nacionais aprovam como procedimento seguro a desinfecção química de alto nível de endoscópios digestivos, após sua limpeza. No entanto, estudos evidenciaram que micro-organismos da subclasse Coccidia, especificamente o Cryptosporidium, responsável por infecção entérica, são mais resistentes que as micobactérias e não são inativados pelos desinfetantes químicos de alto nível, exceto pelo Peróxido de Hidrogênio a 6% e 7,5%, formulação ainda não disponível no Brasil. Conclui-se que a legislação deve incluir este agente entre os micro-organismos teste para aprovação de desinfetantes químicos de alto nível e que as autoridades sanitárias devem se esforçar para garantir que os estabelecimentos de assistência à saúde tenham acesso a produtos eficazes contra o Cryptosporidium.