EVALUATION OF CHANGES IN THE EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PROFILE OF NOTIFIABLE DISEASES IN THE MUNICIPALITY OF CAICÓ/RN, DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
epidemiological surveillance; compulsory notification; National Notifiable Diseases System, COVID-19
Epidemiological Surveillance plays an important role in the Unified Health System, contributing to the adoption of specific measures for the prevention and control of illnesses or injuries. The main work tool of Epidemiological Surveillance is compulsory notification, which operates as a means of communicating the occurrence of a certain disease or health problem by health professionals through the National System of Notifiable Diseases. The supply of this system may have been affected due to the occurrence of new actions caused by the emergence of new diseases, such as COVID-19, which may be promoting significant changes in the epidemiological profile of the municipality of Caicó/Rio Grande do Norte, generated due to the social measures adopted by governments and the operationalization of health services to contain the advance of this pandemic; and based on the analysis of the records of these diseases and injuries, this project aims to study the situational diagnosis of compulsory notifications in the municipality of Caicó during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods and Materials: descriptive, retrospective research with a quantitative approach based on data from the National System of Notifiable Diseases in the Net/Online versions, operated by the Municipal Health Department, covering the period from January 2017 to December 2022. Results: The study should highlight the changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the epidemiological profile of notifiable diseases in the municipality of Caicó