Systemic hypertension control in black population in Maranhão, Brazil: problems and challenges

Abstract

We present and discuss the circumstances of the construction and a part of the impact among professionals and managers of health services and social movements, in Maranhão, Brazil, of a text drawn up by members of the Núcleo de Extensão e Pesquisa com Populações e Comunidades Rurais, Negras Quilombolas e Indígenas [Research and Extension Center of Rural, Black Quilombolas, and Indigenous Populations and Communities] (NuRuNI), of the Programa de Pós-Gradução em Saúde e Ambiente [Graduate Program in Health and Environment] of the Federal University of Maranhão (UFMA), on problems identified in the control of hypertension among blacks, and the challenges for the effective implementation and operationalization of the National Policy of Integral Health of the Black Population in the state. The need for our mobilization for the elaboration of this text (which objective was to alert the authorities and operators of the Brazilian Unified Health System, as well as activists from social movements, on the importance and the seriousness of these problems, because it is the nosology of higher prevalence in the state and in the country, and that entail greater number of sequels and secondary serious nosologies) and for our intervention in the context of health policies in the state has been highlighted as a result of classes on the subject, during the Graduate Specialization in Black Women's Health, promoted by NuRuNi, with the support of the Coordenação-Geral de Saúde das Mulheres [General Coordination of Women's Health] of the Ministry of Health, with funding from the Fundo Nacional de Saúde [National Health Fund].