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Analysis of the Perception of Brazilian Medical Students about Chagas Disease

Authors :
Everton Rodrigues Clovis
Daniel Cesaretto Cristal
Giulia Montanari
João Pedro Graceti Machado
Yago Visinho dos Reis
Dayse da Silva Rocha
Kaio Cesar Chaboli Alevi
Source :
Parasitologia, Vol 3, Iss 2, Pp 109-115 (2023)
Publication Year :
2023
Publisher :
MDPI AG, 2023.

Abstract

Considering that health professionals at Brazil had doubts about the entomoepidemiological issues of Chagas disease (CD), and that many of them highlighted not feeling totally safe for clinical care, the knowledge of 281 Brazilian medical students was evaluated through a cross-sectional, descriptive, prospective, and quantitative research. Most students demonstrated that they knew about the etiological agent of CD (Trypanosoma cruzi), since 279 students answered the questionnaire correctly. Furthermore, the medical students demonstrated knowledge of the main form of transmission of the parasite, as 278 students associated CD transmission with triatomines. On the other hand, approximately 25 students did not associate CD transmission with triatomine feces. Besides that, these future health professionals had difficulties in relation to the treatment of CD, as more than half of the students (176) wrongly answered that CD “is not curable” or “is curable in the chronic phase”. Based on the results obtained that point out the difficulties medical students have with CD, there is a need for undergraduate medical courses to address the neglected diseases holistically because the National Curriculum Guidelines for the medical course require the training of competent health professionals capable of integrating the biological, psychological, social, and environmental dimensions.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
26736772
Volume :
3
Issue :
2
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
Parasitologia
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.fa5040e8f37f46a2b86f51922ea1daa0
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/parasitologia3020013