The occurrence of epidemics of Classic Dengue, Dengue Hemorragic Fever and Dengue Shock Syndrome in Brazil and other American countries highlight the fact that those viroses constitute an important public health problem in the continent and stress the need of a permanent evaluation of its epidemiological picture and the development of preventive strategies. Since 1995, an important national debate came out on the strategy of prevention that must be adopted in Brazil. The National Health Council (CNS) created a task force to analyze the problem, that renewed the thesis of erradication of the Aedes aegypti. Eradication was the strategy employed until 1985, when it was replaced by a control approach. A Seminar promoted by CNS in November, 1995, with the participation of members of scientific community, representatives of the State and Municipal Health Secretaries Councils, and health professionals from different public offices disclosed the existence of favorable and unfavorable opinions as far as Aedes aegypti eradication is concerned. This article aims to present a summary of such discussion. The authors endorse the "Aedes aegypti National Erradication Plan" that emerged from CNS Seminar. Despite its technical and scientific problems the plan is feasible, defensible by its capacity to reintroduce essential questions such as the original aims of the Unified Health System (SUS), and the struggle for a better social and inter-regional equity in the country.
