Hanseníase: um estudo sobre preconceito e exclusão social

Abstract

The lack of knowledge about many diseases can lead to misinformation about their epidemiological aspects, causing people to build their knowledge based on common sense, generating preconceived opinions. In view of this social panorama, this study focuses on the following issues: Why is leprosy still viewed from a prejudiced perspective? How important is information to overcome social exclusion and raise awareness about this infectious disease? And what are the main factors that define the persistence of mistaken knowledge and prejudice about leprosy? It is understood that it is important to know and understand all the factors related to leprosy, from the cause to the social problems generated by it. To this end, this research, through a systematic bibliographic review, aims to answer the aforementioned questions and, in its general objective, determine, through data from the academic literature, the importance of social awareness and early diagnosis of leprosy in eradicating the prejudice generated by misinformation about the disease. And its specific objectives are to demystify the stigma of the infectious disease leprosy; to point out the factors that justify the importance of early diagnosis of leprosy; and also to understand the formation of social awareness about leprosy over the last fourteen years (2010-2024) of scientific publications on the consequences of social segregation of leprosy sufferers. This research is qualitative, descriptive in nature, and therefore, we chose the study method based on a systematic review of the literature, focusing on studies that determine factors that contribute to the persistence of social segregation in relation to leprosy sufferers. The perpetuation of prejudice, as inferred from the articles analyzed in this study, can be attributed to four primary factors: misinformation; reactive outbreaks triggered by drug treatment; the continued association of leprosy with cases registered before the development of effective prophylaxis to combat the pathogen; and the deformities and loss of limbs caused by late diagnosis of the disease, which consequently instigate a repulsion coming even from the sufferer of the disease. It is a fact that there are other elements that reinforce the prejudice against leprosy sufferers, such as the incipient training of health professionals who are assigned to care for leprosy patients and religious and folkloric beliefs, which arise in common sense. However, all these aggravating factors are derived from a single factor: the lack of access to pertinent information. There is, therefore, an urgent need to provide the various audiences that make up Brazilian society, in their different locations, ethnicities, genders and cultures, with health education that overcomes any and all doubts about leprosy, emphasizing that it is a curable disease and that joint action by the entire community is required to identify any suspicious sign of infestation by the microbe early and immediately refer the suspect to the nearest basic health unit, so that a clinical examination and all appropriate procedures can be carried out to confirm or rule out the infection