Abstract
This study aims to identify and analyze the social representations of health managers and professionals on challenges of combating dengue fever in Corumba, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil/Bolivia border. It is a qualitative research based on the theory of social representations. For data collection were interviewed five managers and 63 health professionals active in the Family Health Strategy and Santa Casa de Misericordia, whose content analysis was done using the Collective Subject Discourse technique. The results indicate that the municipality has great difficulties to combat dengue fever because it is a border. In the discourse analysis, four main ideas were identified: insufficient financial resources, cross-border mobility, border cooperation reduced and Bolivian culture. The study reinforces the need for bilateral or multilateral cooperation for better health care in border areas.
Key words:
dengue; prevention and control; border areas; health staff; heath manager