April 2019
Inadequate sanitation-related diseases affect vulnerable populations all over the world. A recent study by The Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (CNI), based on data from the National Sanitation Information System (SNIS), showed that investments in the sanitation sector in Brazil decreased by 7.8% compared to the previous year, accounting for the lowest amount in 10 years.
Photo: Agência Brasil
The article Is sanitation essential to human health?, published in the current issue of HCS-Manguinhos (vol.26 no.1 Jan./Mar. 2019) argues that sanitation remains virtually invisible in the Brazilian health sector agenda.
This study by investigates the importance given to this topic by researchers from the public health field.
The relevance of the subject was mapped out in official research groups, Brazilian scientific journals, and public health graduate programs. The results showed that few of these programs addressed the topic of sanitation. As a consequence, according to the article, few public health research groups study and publish about sanitation in the journals assessed.
Regarding the potential factors that can explain the apparent lack of interest on the part of health researchers and journals about sanitation, the article indicates the following: the marginalization of sanitation services from the public health agenda after the 1960s, when its provision was transferred from health sector to the housing and urban development sector; the way environmental issues were incorporated into the field in the late 1970s, which eroded the perceived importance of sanitation amongst the environmental determinants of health; and sanitation may also have remained associated with the traditional public health approach, from which criticism gave rise to the field of public health.
About sanitation in HCS-Manguinhos:
The Sanitation of Brazil: Nation, State, and Public Health, 1889-1930 – The acclaimed study of Gilberto Hochman is available for the first time in English.
Basic sanitation in Brazil – The basic idea of this study is that public sanitation policies are strongly influenced by actors, interests, and institutions.
El cine y la difusión sanitaria – Este libro aborda los instrumentos de difusión sanitaria para impulsar la educación higiénica y de esta forma evitar el contagio de enfermedades.
