The emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases poses challenges to public health, demanding priority health actions to governments and the scientific community, while improving health surveillance, good laboratory infrastructure and compliance with biosafety measures. Transmissible spongiform encephalopaties are a group of neuro-degenerative infections caused by a "naked" infectious agent, with protein elements in its structure, but without genetic material. They are highly stable agents, resistant to most decontamination processes used routinely on health services, therefore representing a public health hazard. The present study aims at analyzing deaths registered in Brazil caused by prions, and establishing biosafety measures related to risks for the health professionals, in order to prevent occupational diseases. A survey of deaths from prion disease was made in Brazil from January 2005 to December 2010. The Mortality Information System (SIM) of the Brazilian Ministry of Health was used to obtain these data. We identified 1 case of Kuru and 132 cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease of the total 171,223 deaths caused by infectious and parasitic diseases. Prions were classified according to risk and the biosafety measures were identified.
prions; mortality; exposure to biological agents; health evaluation
