Zica vírus x Anomalias congênitas: da audiência presumida aos dados reais da distribuição temporo-espacial no Rio Grande do Norte

Abstract

Introduction: although the media coverage provides certainty of a relationship between the Zika virus and microcephaly in newborns, which is an increase in the grouping of congenital anomalies in the Brazilian Northeast, it is suggested that the incidence of congenital anomaly in Rio Grande do Sul North isn’t different when compared to its spatial distribution before and after Zika, because factors such as environmental, socioeconomic and biological can contribute to the permanence of a high incidence in the state. The objective of the present study is to analyze the temporal-spatial distribution of the incidence rates of congenital anomalies in Rio Grande do Norte, before and after the epidemic virus Zika through a geostatistical analysis and correlation with the social determinants in health. Methods: this is an ecological that evaluated the reported cases of congenital anomalies in Rio Grande do Norte before and after the Zika epidemy through a spatial analysis, whose data were grouped in SPSS 13.0 and analyzed in Terraview version 4.2.2. Results: the rate of congenital anomalies in the pre-Zika period was 11.83 cases / 1.000 live births and in the post Zika period it increased to 14.24 cases/1.000 live births, a result of the increase in reported cases. It was visualized that the Agreste Potiguar mesoregion is the one with the highest number of reported cases of Zika, as it is the region that concentrates the largest number of cases of congenital anomalies in the period studied, being correlated with the region with great social dichotomies. Conclusion: the present study revealed that congenital anomalies were always present in the state and no other action was raised with such importance as in the Zika period. Strategies to minimize cases of congenital anomalies through family planning actions, maternal age control, vaccination programs, control in the sale of abortive drugs, drug, alcohol and tobacco use can easily be developed and gain media adherence, fact which is not always perceived, the media having given a focus to the increase of the cases of notification without seeking to understand the process.