Brazil’s National Health Foundation (Funasa) and the Oswaldo Cruz Institute Foundation (Fiocruz) signed a technical cooperation agreement Thursday, September 22, for the implantation of the Food and Nutritional Surveillance System (Sisvan) in the Special Indigenous Health Districts (DSEIs).
The Sisvan will monitor food intake and nutrition among Brazilian Indian tribes. The project is scheduled to get underway in October with the distance training of 500 health professionals (physicians, nurses, and assistants) from the 34 DSEIs.
According to the Minister of Health, Saraiva Felipe, the effort will continue through 2008, with resources on the order of US$ 430 thousand, thus solving the problems of malnutrition. The data that is collected will be merged with the Indigenous Health Information System (Siasi).
The Minister added that there is a high incidence of malnutrition among the population at large, affecting more than three in every ten of the country’s inhabitants.
ABr