Relação entre saúde pública e ambiente: pandemias que assolaram a humanidade e a pandemia da COVID-19

Abstract

The relationship between environment and health is inseparable, so it is remarkable how the unbalance of the human relationship with the environment has been affecting the health of the population since the beginning. The lack of hygiene and basic sanitation are the main causes of epidemics experienced by society throughout human evolution. Since then, the covid-19 pandemic has continued to spread throughout the world, now with less force, but still sickening people through a severe acute respiratory syndrome that can kill. The virus emerged after an outbreak of pneumonia in December 2019 in the city of Wuhan, China. Researchers around the world have been developing vaccines so that the population can become immunized and thus it is possible to decrease the projection of the virus. However, since March 2020, we have been experiencing a pandemic, of covid-19, and the first measure to contain the disease was social isolation. This allowed the spread of the virus to be reduced, until a vaccine for this disease was discovered. But the act of isolation brought difficulties, mainly because people had to drastically change their habits for the common good of society. Then, the inconveniences caused by the pandemic go beyond the severity of contracting the virus, because there is also fear, grief, lack of supplies, unemployment, too much information, lack of physical contact, stress, and others. All these factors affect people's health psychologically and have a direct impact on the collective environment. For this reason, the objective of this study was to analyze the habits acquired by the students of the Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS) Cerro Largo campus, observing changes in physical and mental health, in the period of social distancing due to covid-19 associated with the basic sanitation of the place of residence. The methodological procedures include a literature review, done mainly on the Scielo, Science Direct, and Google Scholar platforms, of the main pandemics that have ravaged humanity and covid-19. Following this, an observational study was conducted, quantitative in nature, with descriptive and analytical scope. A data collection instrument with questions related to sanitation, changes in habits, and student behavior was designed and applied. For data collection Google Forms was used, in an online way, through e-mail forwarded by the coordination of the courses and whatsapp groups of the university in March 2022. The data were analyzed with statistical techniques in R software. It is hoped that the results of the research will contribute to the actions for the return of face-to-face activities at the UFFS, Cerro Largo campus. More broadly, it is expected that the study contributes to the discussion of health and environment in both the academic and general communities.