Health Surveillance: Cievs holds the first meeting of the Event Monitoring Committee in Montes Claros

This Tuesday, 30/4, the first meeting of the Event Monitoring Committee (CME) promoted by the Center for Strategic Information in Health Surveillance (Cievs) Regional of Montes Claros took place. During the meeting held via videoconference, with the participation of municipal and state technical references, Débora Danyelle Ribeiro, technical reference Pan-American Health Organization and the Ministry of Health (Opas/MS), highlighted the importance of installing Cievs in Montes Claros , taking into account that the region has the second largest road junction in the country, therefore concentrating a large flow of people and vehicles.

“Cievs aims to strengthen local capacity related to preparation, surveillance and response to possible public health emergencies, in order to organize the adoption of appropriate responses that reduce and contain the risk to the health of the population”, noted the technical reference.

In 2020, the country had a total of 55 Cievs. The network is expanding and currently consists of 190 active centers. Cievs Regional de Montes Claros was the first installed in the interior of the state, in August 2023, in an initiative by the Minas Gerais State Department of Health (SES-MG), Ministry of Health and PAHO.

The work involves exchanging information with nine Hospital Surveillance Centers (Nuveh) based in the following institutions: Santa Casa de Montes Claros; Hospital das Clínicas Dr. Mário Ribeiro da Silveira; Aroldo Tourinho Hospital; Dilson Godinho Hospital; Clemente de Faria University Hospital; São Vicente de Paulo Municipal Hospital, in Coração de Jesus; Janaúba Regional Hospital; Hospital Municipal de Francisco Sá and Hospital Municipal Dr. Oswaldo Prediliano, based in Salinas.

Among the actions that Cievs develops is monitoring notifications of outbreaks, epidemics, illnesses, disasters, the occurrence of epizootics and lack of assistance in the health sector. Working in conjunction with Cives Minas, based in Belo Horizonte, the Center also monitors the detection of health events that are reported by media outlets.

Arboviruses
During the Event Monitoring Committee meeting, the coordinator of Health Surveillance and Cievs at SRS Montes Claros, Agna Soares da Silva Menezes, presented updated data on 4/29 regarding the epidemiological scenario of arboviruses in Minas Gerais. To date, the state has 1,328,921 probable cases of dengue, of which 556,480 were confirmed by laboratory tests.

“We are experiencing a dengue epidemic never before experienced in Minas Gerais, with 9,212 serious cases reported or with warning signs; 324 confirmed deaths and 769 under investigation”, highlighted the coordinator.

Regarding chikungunya, Agna Menezes recalled that, this year, the state has a high incidence of cases of the disease, with 51 confirmed deaths and 34 under investigation.

Specifically in relation to the North of Minas, data updated by SES-MG indicate the notification of 77,652 probable cases of dengue and 18,472 confirmed cases. The region also records 18 deaths from dengue and 29 cases under investigation.

Serotype 1 is the predominant type of dengue in the North of Minas (96% of cases), followed by serotype 2 (4%). However, the Cievs coordinator noted, the circulation of serotype 3 was detected in the municipalities of Coração de Jesus and Salinas.

“Vaccination against dengue, which should begin soon in the North of Minas Gerais, brings a new boost to controlling the disease, but municipalities and the population will not be able to give up on eliminating breeding grounds for the Aedes aegypti mosquito. This is because, in addition to dengue, the mosquito transmits other diseases, such as chikungunya and zika, in addition to Oroupoche and Mayaro fever, with cases detected in the country”, warned Agna Menezes.

Monitoring
Also during the first meeting of the CME, the technical reference of the SRS Epidemiological and Health Surveillance Coordination, Adriana Barbosa Amaral, revealed that Cievs de Montes Claros monitored 39 events in April. Regarding monitoring media rumors, in the last epidemiological week alone, 33 cases were verified. Of these, 30 rumors were verified as true.

The Regulatory Coordinator of the Regional Health Superintendence, Cleiton Francis Carnielle, noted that “the work of Cievs is of fundamental importance to unify the decision-making of managers and health professionals, in situations of risk to the health of the population”.

By Pedro Ricardo