The purpose of this study was to characterize the population's refusal to allow their houses to be sprayed in four regions of Belo Horizonte, in the period from 2006 to 2008, and relate these denials with the emergence of cases of visceral leishmaniasis in the same location and time. We used the location of 27 human cases of visceral leishmaniasis obtained from SINAN, all data from four regions in the West Region of the city of Belo Horizonte, from 2006 to 2008. Of a total of 33,579 houses visited by the chemical vector control, 9636 (28.70%) accepted spraying inside and outside the home, 20741 (61.77%) agreed with spraying only the areas surrounding the property, 141 (0.42%) agreed only to spray indoors, 909 (2.70%) were found closed at the time of spraying, and 2152 (6.41%) refused any kind of spray at house. A chemical control vector was allowed only in surrounding areas of most of the houses studied. The difference between the profile of denials of the blocks contained in an area of 200 meters around a human case of VL, with the same profile of the blocks out of this area was significant (P<0,05) in 07 (25,92%) of 27 cases of the disease.
refusal to participate; vector control; visceral leishmaniasis
