Acesso à orientação quanto ao autocuidado por pessoas diagnosticadas com hanseníase em um município da Zona da Mata Mineira

Introduction: Introduction: leprosy is still a public health problem in Brazil. Even with treatment and cure, depending on its evolution, it can lead to physical disabilities and deformities mainly in the hands, feet and eyes being considered the disease that most causes physical disabilities among communicable diseases. Objective: to identify what are the actions of prevention and control of physical disabilities of leprosy offered to people diagnosed with leprosy of a municipality in the Zona da Mata Mineira. Material And Methods: This was a cross-sectional observational study, involving 23 cases diagnosed with leprosy in a municipality of Zona da Mata Mineira in the period from 2011 to 2016. Data were collected through home visits in which participants were individually addressed. The data, after the collection in the ODK Collect tool, was exported, processed and analyzed in IBM® SPSS® Statistics v. 24 for Windows. A descriptive analysis of the data was carried out through measures of central tendency and dispersion. Results: 21.7% deny receiving any kind of self-care orientation at the time of diagnosis. In addition, the offer was not fully in line with what was advocated. Regarding the leprosy control actions offered by the health service in which the participants received treatment: follow-up visits (82.6%), actions always or almost always offered at each consultation regarding the evaluation of the sensitivity (95.7%), muscle strength assessment (91.0%), individual guidelines for self-care (69.6%) and individual orientations regarding medication effects (82.7%). There was a low presence of group educational activities on leprosy (17.4%), as well as low referrals to specialists (47.9%). Conclusion: there is operational difficulty in managing the actions of prevention and control of leprosy disabilities, which may contribute to an increased risk of developing physical disabilities.