Monitoring COVID-19 in Rio’s favelas: territorial-based surveillance and shared production of knowledge

ABSTRACT

This is a critical reflection essay on COVID-19 in suburban areas in Rio de Janeiro through documental analysis of the three socio-epidemiological bulletins COVID-19 in the favelas, published in FIOCRUZ COVID-19 Observatory. The results of these bulletins were presented and discussed grounded on critical epidemiology and the social determination of the health-disease process, discussing the magnitude of the disease in the favelas. Furthermore, we understood that this debate elicits and strengthens the discussion about the health and social impacts of COVID-19 in the Brazilian suburbs. We described the work process to prepare the bulletins and the methodological challenges of monitoring diseases in the suburbs. Lastly, the main results were analyzed and discussed, considering the historical inequalities that became more evident with the current pandemic.

KEYWORDS
Poverty areas; Interdisciplinary placement; Access to information; Public health surveillance