Social inequalities, iniquities and neglected diseases: congenital syphilis on the international health agenda

Abstract

Objective:

To identify the place of congenital syphilis on the health agenda and analyze the process of social determination and social determinants having an influence, at different levels, on the health policy agenda setting, from a right to health perspective.

Methods:

Qualitative exploratory, descriptive and transversal study, based on primary data (semi-structured interviews with those involved in the subject at the global, regional and local level) as well as secondary data. A model was developed to analyze the health agenda and the position that a topic occupies in it, in this case, congenital syphilis.

Results:

Social determinants, at different levels, linked to foreign policy, trade, science / technological innovation and production systems, hinder the advance of congenital syphilis from a formal agenda to a decision agenda. This process is also influenced by the absence of pressure groups and a low visibility of the disease as a public health problem.

Conclusions:

Congenital syphilis persists as a public health problem, and in many countries of the region, this issue does not move up to a decision agenda, which hinders its effective control. The elaborated model and the social determinants identified at its different levels constitute a contribution in this direction.

Keywords:
Global Health; Neglected Diseases; Health Status Disparities; Congenital Syphilis