A NOSSA SAÚDE: UM RETRATO DA SAÚDE COLETIVA EM TERRITÓRIOS DESIGUAIS

Abstract

The work now presented emerges at a historical moment characterized by intense social, economic, and health crises, in which public and collective health clearly demonstrate the contradictions of societies affected by structural inequalities.

In periods when science and technology evolve rapidly, the need to emphasize that health cannot be limited to indicators or technical procedures, but must be understood as a fundamental dimension of social life, permeated by power relations, historical injustices, and political conflicts, also grows. In this context, this work represents a significant contribution to the critical analysis of epidemiology and health surveillance, highlighting the need for an approach guided by social justice and the appreciation of the diversity of knowledge.

Throughout the chapters, the reader will perceive a solid theoretical structure that relates to the legacy of Public Health in Latin America and to the critical views that emerge from the Epistemologies of the South. The work confirms that the processes of health, illness, and death are socially generated, and that health inequalities are not natural, but a consequence of political decisions and economic models that exclude.

Critical epidemiology, discussed here, provides tools to understand how social structures influence the distribution of health problems, while also warning about the dangers of a science disconnected from social reality, which reduces vulnerable populations to "risk groups" and naturalizes exclusion.

Health surveillance is described not only as a monitoring technique, but as a political mechanism for safeguarding life in common, which can strengthen or combat health inequalities, according to its ethical direction and management. The work highlights the importance of reassessing the production of knowledge in health, challenging the predominance of Eurocentric knowledge and supporting epistemological decolonization as a requirement for an epidemiology that is more attentive to the realities of territories and the experiences of resistance of communities.

In short, the work signals the urgency of a health science dedicated to human dignity, the right to health, and the formation of more just and supportive societies. This preface does not intend to exhaust the topics covered, but proposes a careful and reflective reading, where the reader is able to perceive the political and ethical importance of epidemiology and health surveillance.

May this work incite discussions, investigations, and actions that reinforce collective health as an arena of social struggle and as a means for changing living conditions and the structure of health systems!