[Extract] Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are highly dependent on food imports from larger nations, with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Pacific islands combined importing almost $5 billion in food in 2018, and more than half of SIDS countries importing more than 80% of their food, much of it nutritionally poor and highly processed (1). This has been an important driver of high levels of obesity (>30% of adults), food insecurity, and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) (between 10-30% of adults) in these countries (2).

Community engagement is crucial for public health initiatives, yet it remains an under-studied process within national disease elimination programs. This report shares key lessons learned for community engagement practices during a malaria outbreak response in the Los Tres Brazos neighborhood of urban Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic from 2015-2016. In this two-year period, 233 cases of malaria were reported—more than seven times the number of cases (31) reported in the previous two years.

Objective.

To measure through bibliometric analysis the productivity, visibility and impact of the Regional System for Vaccines (SIREVA, a project by the Pan American Health Organization), including its two components laboratory surveillance and vaccine development.

Universal health coverage is a public health priority in the Americas. Social innovation in health offers novel solutions to unmet needs, by enabling health care delivery to be more inclusive, affordable, and effective. In 2017, an international collaborative consortium launched an open call for solutions that sought to identify social innovations in health in Central America and the Caribbean. The focus was set on how these solutions can

This study identifies and describes the changes introduced in Cuba’s constitutional and legal framework, and the country’s economic and social policy between 2015 and 2020, in terms of the effects on access to health. The conceptual map of public health and intellectual property in Cuba was also updated.

Objective.

To determine the occurrence of high-risk clusters for congenital syphilis (CS) in Brazil and describe the temporal trends in the CS infection in the country, comparing children whose mothers received vs. those whose mothers did not receive prenatal care.

Objective.

To evaluate and report the clinical characteristics and outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnant women and newborns in Latin America.

Methods.

Descriptive study based on the prospective report of the units of the Ibero-American Society of Neonatology Network.

The basic clinical characteristics of the first 100 fatal cases from COVID-19 in Colombia were analyzed based on reports from the National Institute of Health (INS) since the beginning of the pandemic. Since the INS records do not include clinical variables of comorbidity in the total number of cases reported as positive, but only in patients with fatal outcome, comorbidities, age and sex available in the daily INS reports were reviewed.

The challenge of moving towards the right to health for all —through the strategies for universal access to health and universal health coverage (universal health)— requires multiple conditions and actions. One of them is to have sufficient health workers, well distributed and with the skills and motivation needed for the transformation of health services and to provide comprehensive and quality responses to people and their

Objectives.

To identify the preferred specialties, salary perception and other factors that influence the choice of a career in primary care among last-year medical students or social service students in Central America.

Methods.

A cross-sectional, multicenter study using a survey that investigated demographic information, preferred specialty, salary perception, and other factors that influence the choice of a specialty.