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Objectives: In order to estimate the prevalence of influenza like illness (ILI) in adults from all state capitals and geographic regions in Brazil, a periodical monitoring of ILI cases by the national telephone survey (VIGITEL) was carried out in 2010., Method: A cross-sectional study with 47,876 telephone interviews in the state capitals and Federal District, a probabilistic sample of adult population (>18 years-old) with landline telephone. Questions concerning the results of ILI cases and pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009, from January 10 to November 30, were analyzed. The proportion of cases stratified by sociodemographic characteristics and Brazilian geographic region was weighted with data from the National Survey with Household Sampling (PNAD) 2008., Results: The prevalence of ILI cases in the last 30 days before interview was 31.2% (95%CI 30.2-32.2%) for all state capitals and the Federal District. This prevalence was higher among women, young adults (18 to 29 years-old) and individuals with 9 to 11 years of schooling. According to the geographic region analysis, Northern Brazil presented the highest prevalence of ILI cases. A tendency to increase with further decrease was observed among the geographic regions, except the Northeast. Need for health care assistance was reported by 26.8% (95%CI 25.1-28.5) from ILI cases. Among ILI cases that sought health care assistance, 2.6% (95%CI 1.8-3.4) reported pandemic influenza (H1N1) 2009 medical suspicion., Conclusion: The results of this survey supported influenza surveillance as it provided timeliness and useful surveillance information, which were not captured by the traditional surveillance system, as the occurrence of ILI and need of health care assistance.

This study examines the planning, operations and assessment of a Seniors Vaccination Program in Campinas, São Paulo State, from the standpoint of practices adopted by central, district and local authorities and intended to ensure influenza vaccination coverage. The case study method was used, with work-health process benchmarks. The primary data source was semi-structured interviews, with institutional documents and records serving as secondary sources. The field of study was the municipal coordination of this Program in two Health Districts and one Basic Healthcare Unit. The choice of these Districts was based on differing vaccination coverage, while the Unit choice was guided by its outstanding campaign organization. At the district and local levels, the program was coordinated by nurses who assigned high priority to following routines and rules instead of pursuing the purpose of the campaign. Insufficient analysis capacities were identified, with poorly networked actions, incipient communications methods and ineffective use of information for planning purposes. The results underscore the importance of adopting management practices tailored to the purposes of healthcare efforts, ushering in responsible autonomy among workers and fostering ongoing reflection on these practices.

This is a descriptive and explorative study with a quantitative approach aimed at identifying the meaning of 'being old' according to 50 health-care workers responsible for direct nursing care to elderly residents in nursing homes. Data was obtained by means of the Portuguese version of the 'Semantic Differential Scale' validated in Brazil. Subjects were predominantly nursing assistants and 'general services' workers. The majority of them conferred to the elderly the adjectives beautiful, tender, sweet, wise, interesting, with sense of opportunity, humble and resigned. The attributes destructive, insecure, critic and intrusive were also cited. Most subjects selected adjectives that, in spite of being positive, are also related with docility and passivity.