Brazil Launches Unparalled Study of Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009Diseases of the circulatory system are the leading cause of death in Brazil. According to the Health Ministry (MS) there are 300,000 deaths and over one million hospitalizations per year, and hypertension and diabetes mellitus are major risk factors. Hypertension affects approximately 35% of the Brazilian population over the age of 40 years and of […]
DR & Central America Agree on Common Health, Pharma Policies/Programs
Saturday, January 31st, 2009It doesn’t get much attention outside this corner of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), but the annual Meeting of the Health Sector of Central America and the Dominican Republic (Reunión del Sector Salud de Centro América y República Dominicana – RESSCAD) is quietly doing important work to change health policy among its seven member […]
Brazil: Government & Industry Discuss Changes in Processed Foods
Monday, August 11th, 2008Synopsis in English: Brazil’s Health Minister, José Gomes Temporão, has launched an open and public dialog with Brazil’s food industry about lowering the salt, sugar and trans-fat levels of the processed foods that they offer to the Brazilian market. Temporão revealed that a Ministry study suggests that up to 260,000 Brazilian deaths every year could […]
Diabetes Along the Mexican Border
Monday, November 5th, 2007Pop Quiz: What's the leading cause of death in Mexico and the third leading cause of death among Mexicans living along the US border? Diabetes, more specifically, type 2 diabetes. Don't worry. I didn't know the answer either (blush) until I read this just-released report from the US Centers for Diasease Control (CDC), the Mexican […]
Strengthening Primary Health Care in Argentina / Fortalecer atención salud primaria en Argentina
Sunday, October 21st, 2007Temas Observation: I find two aspects of this loan particularly interesting: (1) the emphasis on integrating attention to chronic disease into the primary health care system, just as the recent World Bank report suggested; (2) the Bank support for integrating access to essential medicines and promotion of rational use of medicines into the primary health […]
Cardiovascular Disease in LAC Revisited
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2007Fellow bloggers, has this ever happened to you? You run across an important piece of news — a breakthrough study just released, for example — and are tempted to simply cut-and-paste into your blog the Reuters or other news blurb, or a related press release, or you’re tempted to make a “quick-and-dirty” post making (perhaps […]
A Health Agenda for the Americas
Saturday, June 9th, 2007The annual General Assembly (GA) of the Organization of American States (OAS), held this year in Panama just last week, was used as the venue for formally rolling out the “Health Agenda for the Americas” developed over the last two years by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The […]
Hearts and Minds in LAC II: What LAC Thinks About CVD
Friday, November 3rd, 2006Trying to Find the Story Behind the Story Behind LAC’s CVD In Part I of “Hearts and Minds in LAC,” I expressed surprise that World Heart Day did not receive greater attention in Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) nations, given the region’s problem with cardiovascular disease (CVD). I also admitted that I myself had not […]