Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) Analysis of the implementation of public health policies on HTLV-1 in Brazil.
Author(s)
Miranda, Angelica Espinosa
Rosadas, Carolina
Assone, Tatiane
Pereira, Gerson Fernando Mendes
Vallinoto, Antonio Carlos Rosário
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Human T lymphotropic virus 1 (HTLV-1) is a public health issue for most countries and imposes important consequences on patients' health and socioeconomic status. Brazil is one of the global leaders of the public health response to these viruses. The country has challenges to overcome to implement meaningful policies aiming to eliminate HTLV-1/2. An analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) for the implementation of public health policies on HTLV-1/2 was performed. The strengths identified were the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS); Brazilian expertise in public health programs successfully implemented; currently available policies targeting HTLV; and strong collaboration with researchers and patient's representative. Lack of awareness about HTLV, insufficient epidemiological data, lack of reference centers for patient care, insufficient availability of confirmatory tests, lack of universal antenatal screening, and absence of cost-effectiveness studies were identified as weaknesses. Some interesting opportunities included the increased interest from international organizations on HTLV, possibility of integrating HTLV into other programs, external funding for research, available online platforms, opportunity to acquire data from HTLV-1/2 surveillance to gather epidemiological information, and HTLV policies that were implemented independently by states and municipalities. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, existing demands from different diseases, the country's demography and its marked sociocultural diversity and the volatility of the technical team working with HTLV-1/2 at the Brazilian Ministry of Health are threats to the implementation of public policies on HTLV-1/2. This SWOT analysis will facilitate strategic planning to allow continuous progress of the Brazilian response to HTLV-1/2 infection.
Date Issued
2022-04-07
Date Acceptance
2022-03-09
Citation
Frontiers of Medicine, 2022, 9
ISSN
1673-7342
Publisher
Springer
Journal / Book Title
Frontiers of Medicine
Volume
9
Copyright Statement
© 2022 Miranda, Rosadas, Assone, Pereira, Vallinoto and Ishak. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35462992
Subjects
control
HTLV-1
prevention
public health policies
public policies
SWOT analysis
transmission
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
ARTN 859115