ARANEISM AND SCORPIONISM IN THE STATE OF PARANÁ: AN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL APPROACH

MARQUES-DA-SILVA E.(1)

(1)Seção de Animais Peçonhentos, Centro de Produção e Pesquisa de Imunobiológicos – SESA - Paraná;

The epidemic and environmental surveillance of the accidents caused by venomous animals in the Paraná State is made by the Division of Zoonosis and Intoxications - Center of Environmental Health of the State Secretariat of Health. The Paraná State is composed of 399 municipal districts divided in 22 Health Regional Units (HRU) and there are also four Centers of Toxicological Information (CTI). Between 2001 and october 2006 60,502 accidents were notified by the System of Information of Offences of Notification (SINANW). From the total of notified accidents above, 74% (n=44,825) were caused by spiders and 3% (n=2,072) by scorpions. Among the accidents caused by spiders the genus Loxosceles (brown spiders) caused 70%, and spiders of the genus Phoneutria 8%. A matter of concern has been the increase in the number of accidents caused by scorpions during the period of time cited above. The occurrence of accidents caused by the scorpions Tityus stigmurus, T. serrulatus, and Rhopalurus rochai in different areas of the State is receiving the health professionals´ attention for this new reality. Due to the service of identification of poisonous arthropods made available to the HRUs now we can estimate the distribution of the species of higher toxicological importance in the municipal districts of the State, and evaluate its relationship with the registered epidemiological characteristics. The data on signs and registered symptoms reflect the quality of the service to the patient, driving the surveillance service to question factors such as the degree of toxicity of the animal and the therapeutics used. Trainings are provided seeking for the improvement in the quality of the service to the accident´s victim. Therefore, the attention to the progresses in the studies of biotoxins, either in the production of imunotherapics, or in the physiopathological actions related to each toxin or their fractions, is an important tool to the quality of the services of health.

KEY WORDS: epidemiology, venomous animals, Loxosceles, Tityus, Phoneutria, Paraná.

CORRESPONDENCE TO: EMANUEL MARQUES DA SILVA, Seção de Animais Peçonhentos, Centro de Produção e Pesquisa de Imunobiológicos (CPPI). R: Targino da Silva s/nº, Piraquara – Paraná – Brasil. CEP: 83302-160. Email: ems@pr.gov.br