Brazilian Indians in 13 states will receive US$ 3.2 million (8 million reais) in health program expenditures by the end of this year.
The National Health Foundation (Funasa) plans to spent these funds on the construction of 68 health posts, 25 basic health centers, and five Indigenous Health Centers.
The health posts will have a physical plant and will operate with a doctor, nurse, dentist, and nursing assistants. The centers will take care of a group of villages, when cases demand more help than the health posts can provide.
The Health Centers are support units for Indians who require more specialized assistance from the Federal Health Care System (SUS), in state capitals or metropolitan areas.
“The main benefit for Indians will be to receive care in an adequate health facility, which will treat them in a humanitarian way, employing strategies that will treat them with dignity and respect their culture in their villages and urban health centers,” explained Alexandre Padilha, director of the Funasa Department of Indian Health.
“These units will be more and more useful in the reduction of child mortality, in providing a better system for accompanying pregnancies, and in reducing cases of malaria, as well as increasing vaccination coverage,” Padilha explained.
He said that the expectation is to take care of the majority of Brazil’s 440 thousand Indians.
The funds will come from the SUS Health Surveillance Project (Vigisus), a partnership between the Ministry of Health and the World Bank (IBRD).
Agência Brasil
