The sickle cell anaemia is the genetic disease with the highest prevalence in Brazil and it is considered a public health matter. Brazil has proposed medical actions to control sickle cell anaemia. This paper analyses some impacts of the educative brochure Anemia falciforme: um problema nosso (Sickle Cell Anaemia: a collective question), edited by the Brazilian Health Ministry. The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse how, after reading the brochure, people with different levels of education understand the difference between trace and sickle cell anaemia, and how they measure the reproductive risk of couples with the trace. The gather of information was done through a questionnaire handed out to 1,007 people, in 11 Brazilian cities, between June and September of 2003. The information discloses that. the formal education is essential to the comprehension of the brochure; the confusion between trace and sickle cell anaemia remains although the brochure points out the difference between both; and the reproductive risk of couples with the trace is exaggerated. The results indicate the tension between prevention and the promotion of the reproductive autonomy, a characteristic of the new genetic.
Sickle cell anaemia; New genetic; Public health
