Research Article LevelofKnowledgeandRiskFactorsforVisceralLeishmaniasisin a Mining Area of Minas Gerais State, Brazil Carina Margonari , 1 J´ ulia Alves Menezes , 2 Gustavo Mayr de Lima Carvalho , 1 J´ ulia Bahia Miranda , 1 Fabrizio Furtado de Sousa , 3 Felipe Dutra Rˆ ego , 1 Aldenise Martins Campos , 1 Carolina Cunha Monteiro , 1 Ana Paula Madureira , 4 and Jos´ e Dilermando Andrade Filho 1 1 Leishmaniasis Study Group, Ren´ e Rachou Institute-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Belo Horizonte 30190–002, Brazil 2 Transdisciplinary Study Group on Health and Environment, Ren´ e Rachou Institute-Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Belo Horizonte 30190–002, Brazil 3 Divin´ opolis State University, Divin´ opolis 35501-170, Brazil 4 Department of Biosystems Engineering, Federal University of São João del-Rei, São João del-Rei 36307-352, Brazil Correspondence should be addressed to Carina Margonari; carina.souza@fiocruz.br Received 22 April 2020; Revised 21 September 2020; Accepted 9 November 2020; Published 20 November 2020 Academic Editor: Lcia Galvo Copyright © 2020 Carina Margonari et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Aiming to optimize and adjust leishmaniasis prevention and control measures for the resident population of Pains, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, a structured questionnaire containing conceptual questions and questions about household characteristics was used to evaluate knowledge level and exposure risk. A total of 396 individuals were interviewed revealing unscientific and fragmented knowledge about the subject for most of the studied population. e female population was found to have 1.68 times more chance of knowing about the disease than the male population, while highly educated individuals were found to have 2.92 times more chances of knowing about leishmaniasis compared to basic educated individuals. All of the respondents reported the presence of, at least, one risk factor, while ages ≥40 years were considered a protective factor compared to younger ages, indicating that older individuals are more likely to recognize risks and protect themselves against leishmaniasis. ese results will contribute to the production of didactic materials for the population with respect to their previous knowledge and will provide a basis for control and prophylactic measures. 1. Introduction Leishmaniasis is considered a globally neglected disease with high morbidity and mortality, with the Americas being one of the main centers of both visceral (VL) and tegumentary forms (ATL). A total of 55,530 human VL cases were re- ported in the Americas during 2001–2016, representing an annual average of 3,457 cases, with 96% occurring in Brazil [1]. e number of deaths caused by VL by in Brazil has increased since 2012, reaching a lethality rate of 7.9% in 2016—the highest rate compared to other countries of the Americas 1 . e disease manifestations mainly affect both marginalized and impoverished populations and, thus, present a challenge for control programs since great tech- nical-operational and political efforts are required to sys- tematically maintain surveillance actions. e first human case of VL in Brazil was identified in Bahia in 1934 during studies to diagnose yellow fever. In the subsequent years, the role of the domestic dog as a reservoir of the disease was established, as was Lutzomyialongipalpis asthevector[2].At that time, the disease was considered endemic only to the Northeast Region of the country, where it was restricted to rural and wild environments. Since the 1980s, VL has spread throughout Brazil, affecting medium and large municipal- ities in the northeast, center-west, and southeast regions of the country. e Visceral Leishmaniasis Control Program Hindawi Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Infectious Diseases Volume 2020, Article ID 6301310, 10 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/6301310