O papel do médico veterinário nos Núcleos de Apoio à Saúde da Família (NASF)

Abstract

Veterinary Medicine is one of the professions encompassed by the health area and it is closely linked to Public Health. Nonetheless, it is rarely recognized for this merit. The main gateway to the Basic Health Care system in Brazil is the Family Health Strategy, made up of multidisciplinary teams (doctors, nurses, dentists, nursing and dental technicians, and community health agents) that work directly with the clientele of a health territory. Since 2008, Family Health Support Centers (NASF) have been set up in order to provide technical support to the Family Health teams (eSFs), i.e., help solve problems or doubts that the eSFs might have. These NASF are composed of an extensive list of health care professionals. However, between 2008 and 2011, Veterinary Medicine had no legal support to compose NASF. This situation changed with Decree No. 2.488/2011 from the Ministry of Health. Since then, Veterinarians have been recognized as human public health agents and can, therefore, work in the development of public health actions to provide technical support to the eSFs they are linked to. “This contributes to the comprehensiveness of the care given to the users of the National Public Health System (SUS), mainly through clinical expansion. It helps to increase the analysis and intervention capacity regarding health issues and needs, in clinical as well as in health and environmental terms inside the territories.” (National Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, 2013). This is especially true for those problems connected to antropozoonoses or care and preservation of foods of animal origin.