Treating the injured worker in Brazil. The South American experience.

Despite appropriate laws to protect workers, the health conditions of Brazilian workers reflect the social and economic reality in Brazil. A statistical analysis of health actions in Brazil shows serious distortions caused by the immense discrepancy between the poverty of the Northern and Northeastern states and the richness, although concentrated, of the great Southern and Southeastern cities of the country. Valid quantitative measures of health care problems of workers are confounded by the presence of a large mass of informal workers within the country, which may not be included in standard statistical analysis. Despite the existence of norms and laws related to the health of workers, their application is precarious and selective. The development of educational and preventive actions is already a reality in Brazil with unquestionable statistical repercussions, notwithstanding their doubtful comprehensiveness. The diseased worker or victim of a work-related accident in Brazil has no access to adequate medical assistance, and survival depends on benefits that are often insufficient to enable them to support themselves.