Saberes acerca dos vetores de doenças e fatores socioambientais associados com a ocorrência de triatomíneos em um município endêmico do Norte de Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

Biological vectors belong to different groups of invertebrates and are capable of transmitting numerous etiological agents that cause disease. One example is triatomines (Hemiptera: Reduviidae), vectors of Trypanosoma cruzi, which is the etiologic agent of Chagas disease. The present work consists of two main scientific products. The first is a descriptive study that aimed to evaluate the knowledge of the adult population about disease vectors in the North of Minas Gerais. The research was carried out in the northern mesoregion of Minas Gerais, Brazil, through the following stages: elaboration of the questions, based on the available literature; content adequacy; assembly of the game on an online platform; pilot test; instrument correction and application. For data analysis, the IBM SPSS Statistics 25.0 program was used. There was the participation of 139 people, with a prevalence of females, aged over 31 years and with complete secondary education. None of the participants managed to get all the questions about the vectors right. The question that addressed the differences between the Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus vectors was identified as the most difficult in the game. At the same time, the success rate was higher in questions related to Aedes aegypti, lice and triatomines. The game pointed out that the adult population has limited knowledge about disease vectors in the north of Minas Gerais. In addition, it contributed to the dissemination of information on the biology and ecology of vectors. The second product is an ecological study that investigated the influence of environmental and sociodemographic characteristics and changes in land use and cover with the occurrence and number of triatomines in the census sectors of the municipality of Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of 1,404 triatomines were captured in domiciles in the rural area (2015 to 2019) and 277 triatomines in domiciles in the urban area (2009 to 2019) of the city of Montes Claros, belonging to eight species. The presence of domiciles, residents' income and anthropic changes in census sectors have a positive effect on the occurrence and number of triatomines in the urban area, however, they did not exert effects in the rural area. The occurrence of triatomines in the home environment in the municipality of Montes Claros should be considered a public health problem, as it suggests a potential risk of establishment and transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi to domestic animals and humans. Hopefully, these studies will help understand the vectors and the epidemiology of diseases, especially Chagas disease.