Vigilancia epidemiológica e indicadores de salud y seguridad en el trabajo en Cuba

the selection and application of adequate environmental health indicators is today an important, pressing and unpostponable need, mainly for the making of suitable decisions on the part of the bodies and officials that are specifically in charge of this type of activity. as regards the health and safety of the workers in particular, these indicators are hardly dealt with and are ill-defined at the international level, in addition to the fact that the information collected and given by the different countries and institutions is still heterogenous and very limited unfortunately, that is, insufficient and deficient. the main objective of the present paper was to explain briefly the fundamental characteristics of the epidemiologic surveillance system applied to workers？ health in cuba, as well as the present situation of its introduction and implementation, making emphasis on the aspects connected with the statistical information inherent to each susbsystem and, above all, with the deficiencies, insufficiencies and limitations found in the preparation and utilization of the indicators of health and safety at work necessary for the decision making at the different levels and instances of the health and working organizations. finally, some particular considerations and recommendations were given so that certain inconsistencies in the conception and application of adequate indicators may be corrected in time and the use of the statistical information of the reference surveillance system in our country may be considerably improved.