President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva sanctioned this Friday (20), at the Planalto Palace, the bill that now considers community health workers and endemic disease control workers as health professionals. With the change, these workers are now able to accumulate public functions, which is only allowed for health and education professionals, in addition to being assured of better working conditions, such as receiving additional unhealthy work and other benefits accessible specifically to defined health professionals. place.

“I am extremely emotional. Until then, we were considered health workers, not professionals. This affected several problems, including our unsanitary conditions”, explains Hermelina Pereira Canxangá, a community health worker for 20 years and who works at Recanto das Emas. , administrative region of the Federal District.

The text had been approved by the National Congress on December 21 and was awaiting the sanction to enter into force. In the country, there are 265,000 community agents, who work in the field of Family Health, in the prevention of diseases and the promotion of health in home, community, individual and collective actions. In addition to them, another 61,000 endemic disease control professionals work in epidemiological and environmental surveillance, disease prevention and control.

“I would like to highlight the role of community health workers, and endemic disease control workers, understanding their role as health workers, who can monitor our population more closely, close to homes, territories, contributing support for basic health care,” said Health Minister Nísia Trindade.

According to the Ministry of Health, health workers working in the country have their salaries paid in full with funds transferred by the federal government. In 2022, 7.8 billion reais have been committed. For 2023, the allocation of BRL 9.9 billion is expected, an increase of 27%.