Published since 1922, the Pan American Journal of Public Health is the flagship scientific and technical periodical of the Pan American Health Organization. Its mission is to contribute to the production and dissemination of scientific public health information of international significance, mainly in areas related to PAHO's essential mission of strengthening health systems and improving the health of the peoples of the Americas.

Publication in the journal has no cost for authors, and all manuscripts are open access and free for readers.

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Selected manuscripts on international health days

Obstetric violence in Chile: women’s perceptions and differences among health centers

Read more about Obstetric violence in Chile: women’s perceptions and differences among health centers

Objective

The objective of this article is to report the results of the first survey on obstetric violence in Chile, to bring to light a reality more common than we think, and to compare its occurrence by the type of service (public or private) where the birth was attended.

Methods

This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study conducted from December 2019 to May 2020. The sample was composed of 2 105 women from all regions of Chile.

Management and impact of interventions to reduce COVID-19 cases in Costa Rica

Read more about Management and impact of interventions to reduce COVID-19 cases in Costa Rica

Objective

Assess the impact of interventions introduced in Costa Rica during 2020 and 2021 to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

A Bayesian Poisson regression model was used, incorporating control or intervention measures as independent variables in the changes in reported case numbers per epidemiological week.

Colorectal cancer in an Eastern Caribbean nation: are we missing an opportunity for secondary prevention?

Read more about Colorectal cancer in an Eastern Caribbean nation: are we missing an opportunity for secondary prevention?

Objective.

To establish whether there was any difference in disease stage in patients with screening-detected colorectal cancer (CRC) in a Caribbean country.

HEARTS in the Americas

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Americas, and high blood pressure accounts for over 50% of CVD. Unfortunately, in the Americas, over a quarter of adult women and four in ten adult men have hypertension, and the diagnosis, treatment, and control are suboptimal. Remarkably, only a few countries exhibit a population hypertension control rate of over 50%.

Corruption and its relation to prevalence and death due to noncommunicable diseases and risk factors: a global perspective

Read more about Corruption and its relation to prevalence and death due to noncommunicable diseases and risk factors: a global perspective

Objective

To describe the relation between corruption indicators and statistics on noncommunicable diseases and their risk factors by continent.

Methods

An ecological study was conducted to examine the relation of the GINI coefficient, the Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA), and the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) with noncommunicable diseases, using the Spearman’s rank correlation test.

Ultrasensitive molecular tests for Plasmodium detection: applicability in control and elimination programs and reference laboratories

Read more about Ultrasensitive molecular tests for Plasmodium detection: applicability in control and elimination programs and reference laboratories

Objective

To evaluate molecular tools to detect low-level parasitemia and the five species of Plasmodium that infect humans for use in control and elimination programs, and in reference laboratories.

The HEARTS app: a clinical tool for cardiovascular risk and hypertension management in primary health care

Read more about The HEARTS app: a clinical tool for cardiovascular risk and hypertension management in primary health care

HEARTS in the Americas is the regional adaptation of the World Health Organization’s Global Hearts Initiative, which will be the model for risk management for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in primary health care in the Region of the Americas by 2025. It has already been implemented in 21 countries and 1045 primary health care centers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. It takes a public health and health systems approach to systematically introduce simplified interventions at the primary health care level and focuses on hypertension as a clinical entry point.

Feasibility of using artificial intelligence for screening COVID-19 patients in Paraguay

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Objective

Study the feasibility of using artificial intelligence as a sensitive and specific method for COVID-19 screening in patients with respiratory conditions, using chest CT scan images and a telemedicine platform.

Estimating national excess mortality from subnational data: application to Argentina

Read more about Estimating national excess mortality from subnational data: application to Argentina

This paper presents a method to estimate excess mortality where national data are missing for some or all of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic period, but subnational data exist, such as in Argentina. By making use of the stability of the regional distribution of deaths, data on deaths in Córdoba province were used to project excess deaths in Argentina from March 2020 up to the end of 2021. The number of excess deaths was estimated at 134 504, which is 14.8% higher than the reported number of COVID-19 deaths in Argentina for the same time period.

Hepatitis B in indigenous people in Latin America: a literature review

Read more about Hepatitis B in indigenous people in Latin America: a literature review

Objective

Identify publications from 2000 to 2020 on hepatitis B in indigenous people in Latin America, to learn about advances and gaps in this field in the last 20 years.