Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Investigação da intensidade de parasitismo, prevalência e ação educativa para controle de pediculose.

2012; Volume: 23; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

0100-2929

Érica Fragoso Rocha, Flávia Tomie Sakamoto, Maria Helena da Silva, Alcione Vendramin Gatti,

Empathy and Medical Education

Introduction: Pediculosis is caused by Pediculus humanus, known as head lice, affecting patients at any age and of both genders, most found during childhood. It is a public health issue, because it interferes with child learning capacity due to hematophagy and distraction caused by head itching. Method: This study aimed to investigate the degree of infestation by P. capitis in 147 children (4 to 11 years old), students of an Elementary school in Jundiai using Catala method, which consists on the examination of children's head for 3 minutes. All children were classified according to findings in degrees of infestation (0, 0+, 1, 2 or 3). This research was conducted during two visits for medical examination. Preventive and educational activities were carried out through theater performance, and medical consultations performed by the Pediatrician from the local Primary Health Care were held when prescription of drug treatment was needed due to active infestation. Results and Conclusion: The study showed that girls had highest rate of infestation and represented the majority of worsening cases after the intervention; the highest infestation was at the age group of 5 years old. At the first visit, 44.89 % were in a degree of active or old infestation, while in the second visit it resulted in 32.78 %, showing that measures to combat P. capitis have contributed to decline of the incidence of cases