Health Surveillance within the Primary Healthcare scope to face the Covid-19 pandemics: a document review

Abstract

Health Surveillance strategies are crucial to organize a strong national response against the coronavirus disease 2019. In Brazil it is necessary to think about the integration of the primary health care and local Health Surveillance. This review aims to analyze the normative documents produced by the Federal Government on this topic. Official documents published by the Federal Government were reviewed, finding 22 related. It was identified a greater support for implementation of intramural actions related to detection and notification of cases and contacts, than for active search of community COVID-19 cases, local educational actions, community engagement, strengthening adherence to preventive measures, improvement of information sharing or support of community's social facilities. Little was produced about the articulation of PHC with local surveillance teams. Our findings reinforce the warned by other authors who attested the insufficient importance attributed to PHC in Brazil, especially with regard to health surveillance actions. Unfortunately, our country has stood out for one of the worst managements of the health crisis in the world, and there is an urgent need to strengthen surveillance actions based on a strong, capillary and community-based PHC.