In a context of poor investment in sanitation, Teixeira e Guilhermino (2006) studied the association between the sanitation conditions and the epidemiological indicators in the Brazilian states, based on secondary data from the database from IDB (2003) of the Ministry of Health. Since 2003, investments in basic sanitation in Brazil had an expressive increase. Thus, the present paper had as a purpose to test the hypothesis that the improvement in the coverage by basic sanitation services from 2001 to 2006 was an investment capable to improve the studied health indicators in the Brazilian states. It has been concluded that there was an improvement in the health indicators, which is still not expressive, being of the most importance the use of epidemiological and social development indicators in the priority of investments in basic sanitation in Brazil.
association; sanitation; health; Brazilian states; indicators
