SOCIAL INEQUITIES AND SYPHILIS AND HIV INFECTION: A CHALLENGE FOR BRAZILIAN PUBLIC HEALTH

Abstract

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection (STI) whose etiological agent is the bacterium Treponema pallidum, while HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is also considered an STI and presents itself as a risk for Syphilis, both are considered a persistent obstacle in Brazilian public health, not only for the infection itself, but also for being associated with social inequities in Brazil. Thus, the study consists of an integrative literature review and aims to analyze the influence of social inequities on Syphilis and HIV infection. For this, a bibliographic survey of articles published in the time interval from 2018 to 2022, written in Portuguese, English and Spanish, was conducted. For the construction of the review, with reference to the Health Science Descriptors - DeCS, the terms used for the search for articles were: "Humans AND infectious disease transmission AND STD", which generated 110 writings, which were found in the databases: Índice Bibliográfico Español en Ciencias de la Salud (IBECS), Latin American and Caribbean Literature on Health Sciences (LILACS) and  Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). In this context, it is observed that the aforementioned STIs exert significant influence on social inequities, since factors such as low education, low socioeconomic status and inadequate housing were identified as aspects that increase the susceptibility of individuals to the diseases, in addition to the fragile social  knowledge about the prevention of these diseases, which are preventable infections, however,  persistent in the Brazilian scenario.