International cooperation in public health in Martinique: geostrategic utility for cancer surveillance in the Caribbean.

BACKGROUND: Cooperation in public health and in oncology in particular, is currently a major issue for the island of Martinique, given its geopolitical position in the Caribbean region. The region of Martinique shares certain public health problems with other countries of the Caribbean, notably in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with cancer. We present here a roadmap of cooperation priorities and activities in cancer surveillance and oncology in Martinique. MAIN BODY: The fight against cancer is a key public health priority that features high on the regional health policy for Martinique. In the face of these specific epidemiological conditions, Martinique needs to engage in medical cooperation in the field of oncology within the Caribbean, to improve skills and knowledge in this field, and to promote the creation of bilateral relations that will help to improve cancer management in an international healthcare environment. CONCLUSIONS: These collaborative exchanges will continue throughout 2020 and will lead to the implementation of mutual research projects across a larger population basin, integrating e-health approaches and epidemiological e-cohorts.

O unicef no brasil e as práticas vizinhas na atualidade / Unicef en brasil y prácticas vecinos hoy / Unicef in brazil and today's neighboring practices

Este artigo visa pensar, analisar e descrever as práticas do Fundo das Nações Unidas para a Infância, na relação com um campo de vizinhança com outras intervenções de saber e poder voltadas às crianças e adolescentes, no Brasil. Para tanto, realiza uma breve história da atualidade do complexo tutelar articulado pela rede de proteção, garantia e defesa dos direitos oferecida pelo Fundo das Nações Unidas para a Infância em conjunto com outras entidades, instituições, grupos, comunidades, organizações não governamentais, fundações, bancos, países, universidades, localidades e agências ligadas à Organização das Nações Unidas. Por meio de análises baseadas em Michel Foucault, de Paul Veyne, em Robert Castel e em Jacques Donzelot, analisamos estas práticas cotidianas, no campo da sociedade disciplinar, da biopolítica, da gestão de riscos e do complexo tutelar, na medida em que formam um dispositivo econômico e político que opera na relação sujeito de direitos e sujeito econômico.

Este artículo pretende pensar, analizar y describir el Fondo de las Naciones Unidas para las prácticas de los niños, en relación a un campo vecino con otras intervenciones de conocimiento y poder dirigidos a niños y adolescentes en Brasil. El estudio presenta una breve historia del complejo tutelar hoy articulado por red de protección, la seguridad y la defensa de los derechos previstos por el Fondo para la Infancia de las Naciones Unidas, junto con otras organizaciones, instituciones, grupos, comunidades, organizaciones no gubernamentales organizaciones, fundaciones, bancos, países, universidades, ciudades y organismos relacionados con las Naciones Unidas. A través del análisis basado en Michel Foucault, Paul Veyne, en Robert Castel y Donzelot, analizamos estas prácticas diarias en el campo de la sociedad disciplinaria, la biopolítica, gestión de riesgos y protegemos complejo, en el que se forma un dispositivo económico y político que opera en relación sujeto de derechos y sujeto económico.

This article aims to think, analyze and describe the practices of the United Nations Fund for Children, in relation to other interventions on the fields of knowledge and power, aimed at children and adolescents in Brazil. The study presents a brief history of today's child protective services articulated by the network of protection, security and defense of rights provided by the United Nations Fund for Children together with other organizations, institutions, groups, communities, non-governmental organizations, foundations, banks, countries, universities, localities and agencies related to the United Nations. Through analyzes based on Michel Foucault, Paul Veyne, Robert Castel and Jacques Donzelot, we analyze these daily practices in the field of disciplinary society, biopolitics, risk management and safeguard of the child protective services, in the way they form an economic and political device that operates in relation to subject of rights and economic subject.

Use of FAO food balance sheets to estimate the potential ability of novel folate-enriched eggs to increase the folate supply in European Union countries.

OBJECTIVE: European governments have yet to introduce mandatory folic acid fortification of foods for neural tube defect prevention because of uncertainty about the long-term safety of high intake of folic acid. Novel folate-enriched eggs have been proposed as offering a practical way of increasing intake of natural folates, which do not have the same safety concerns as synthetic folic acid. Our objective was to estimate the potential increase in folate supply that could occur in European Union (EU) countries if normal eggs were replaced by folate-enriched eggs. DESIGN: FAOSTAT data on daily per capita availability of eggs were linked to mean folate concentrations of un-enriched and folate-enriched eggs from three representative feeding trials from the recent literature. SETTING: Data were collated in Microsoft Excel. SUBJECTS: The study used food balance sheets for Europe for 1961-2003 and for twenty-six individual EU countries for 2003. RESULTS: There has been little variation in egg supply in Europe over the past 40 years, with eggs providing only about 1·3-1·6 % of total energy. In 2003, the average per capita egg supply across twenty-six EU countries was 32·8 g/d, equivalent to a little over half an egg. Even if the folate concentrations of all eggs across the EU were increased two- to threefold, per capita folate supply would increase only by about 25 µg/d. CONCLUSIONS: At current enrichment levels, the availability of novel folate-enriched eggs will have little impact on folate supply in EU countries. In the absence of mandatory fortification, additional natural folate sources are needed urgently.

An evaluation of the International Monetary Fund's claims about public health.

The International Monetary Fund's recent claims concerning its impact on public health are evaluated against available data. First, the IMF claims that health spending either does not change or increases with IMF-supported programs, but there is substantial evidence to the contrary. Second, the IMF claims to have relaxed strict spending requirements in response to the 2008-9 financial crisis, but there is no evidence supporting this claim, and some limited evidence from the Center for Economic Policy Research contradicting it. Third, the IMF states that wage ceilings on public health are no longer part of its explicit conditionalities to poor countries, as governments can choose how to achieve public spending targets; but in practice, ministers are left with few viable alternatives than to reduce health budgets to achieve specific IMF-mandated targets, so the result effectively preserves former policy. Fourth, the IMF's claim that it has increased aid to poor countries also seems to be contradicted by its policies of diverting aid to reserves, as well as evidence that a very small fraction of the Fund's new lending in response to the financial crisis has reached poor countries. Finally, the IMF's claim that it follows public health standards in tobacco control contrasts with its existing policies, which fail to follow the guidelines recommended by the World Bank and World Health Organization. The authors recommend that the IMF (1) become more transparent in its policies, practices, and data to allow improved independent evaluations of its impact on public health (including Health Impact Assessment) and (2) review considerable public health evidence indicating a negative association between its current policies and public health outcomes.

The health-care system: an assessment and reform agenda.

Attempts to establish a health plan for the occupied Palestinian territory were made before the 1993 Oslo Accords. However, the first official national health plan was published in 1994 and aimed to regulate the health sector and integrate the activities of the four main health-care providers: the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Palestinian non-governmental organisations, the UN Relief and Works Agency, and a cautiously developing private sector. However, a decade and a half later, attempts to create an effective, efficient, and equitable system remain unsuccessful. This failure results from arrangements for health care established by the Israeli military government between 1967 and 1994, the nature of the Palestinian National Authority, which has little authority in practice and has been burdened by inefficiency, cronyism, corruption, and the inappropriate priorities repeatedly set to satisfy the preferences of foreign aid donors. Although similar problems exist elsewhere, in the occupied Palestinian territory they are exacerbated and perpetuated under conditions of military occupation. Developmental approaches integrated with responses to emergencies should be advanced to create a more effective, efficient, and equitable health system, but this process would be difficult under military occupation.

Health as foreign policy: harnessing globalization for health.

This paper explores the importance for health promotion of the rise of public health as a foreign policy issue. Although health promotion encompassed foreign policy as part of 'healthy public policy', mainstream foreign policy neglected public health and health promotion's role in it. Globalization forces health promotion, however, to address directly the relationship between public health and foreign policy. The need for 'health as foreign policy' is apparent from the prominence public health now has in all the basic governance functions served by foreign policy. The Secretary-General's United Nations (UN) reform proposals demonstrate the importance of foreign policy to health promotion as a core component of public health because the proposals embed public health in each element of the Secretary-General's vision for the UN in the 21st century. The emergence of health as foreign policy presents opportunities and risks for health promotion that can be managed by emphasizing that public health constitutes an integrated public good that benefits all governance tasks served by foreign policy. Any effort to harness globalization for public health will have to make health as foreign policy a centerpiece of its ambitions, and this task is now health promotion's burden and opportunity.

Experiencias de elaboración y presentación de informes alternativos ante comités de Naciones Unidas: aportes metodológicos / sss

Contiene: los derechos humanos, el contexto político de la experiencia, los derechos humanos y su diversidad DCP-DESC, pactos y convenciones, los primeros pasos en la elaboración de informes alternativos: un aprendizaje hacia la participación, aportes al seguimiento y exigibilidad del PIDESC desde la sociedad civil, el punto de partida; difusión y exigibilidad, metodología y coordinación recogiendo experiencias institucionales.

A window of opportunity for the transformation of national mental health policy in Turkey following two major earthquakes.

Striking at the nation's highly populated industrial heartlands, two massive earthquakes in 1999 killed over 25,000 people in Turkey. The economic cost and the humanitarian magnitude of the disaster were unprecedented in the country's history. The crisis also underscored a major flaw in the organization of mental health services in the provinces that were left out of the 1961 reforms that aimed to make basic health services available nationwide. In describing the chronology of the earthquakes and the ensuing national and international response, this article explains how the public and governmental experience of the earthquakes has created a window of opportunity, and perhaps the political will, for significant reform. There is an urgent need to integrate mental health and general health services, and to strengthen mental health services in the country's 81 disparate provinces. As Turkey continues her rapid transformation in terms of greater urbanization, higher levels of public education, and economic and constitutional reforms associated with its projected entry into the European Union, there have also been growing demands for better, and more equitably distributed, health care. A legacy of the earthquakes is that they exposed the need for Turkey to create a coherent, clearly articulated national mental health policy.

Veterinary public health activities at FAO: echinococcosis/hydatid disease.

Cystic hydatidosis is a zoonotic disease that remain as a significant cause of human morbidity and mortality in many parts of the world. The disease has veterinary public health implications. FAO is involved with some activities in the control of echinococcosis/hydatid disease: within the Animal Production and Health Division the Veterinary Public Health (VHP) Programme is constituted by members of the different Services (Animal Health, Animal Production, and Livestock Policy) within the Division. FAO regular programme has also established a global network of professionals directly involved in VPH. Furthermore FAO's Technical Cooperation Projects (TCP) is a tool to assist member countries in responding to urgent and unforeseen demands.

[The joint work of NGOs and UNAIDS in realizing a project for the prevention of HIV/AIDS among people using narcotics by injection in a region with relatively low rates of HIV infection spread]. / Sovmestnaia rabota NPO i IuNEIDS v realizatsii proekta po profilaktike VICh/SPIDa sredi lits, upotrebliaiushchikh narkotiki in''ektsionnym putem, v regione s otnositel'no nizkimi tempami rasprostraneniia VICh-infektsii.

In recent years the Ukraine has become the epicenter of AIDS in Eastern Europe, though there are still regions with a relatively low number of HIV-infected persons, such as Vinnitsa Province. After the comprehensive study of the factors contributing to the spread of HIV infection in groups of risk the realistic evaluation of the epidemiological danger could be made and the preventive work could be carried out with the help of collaboration between a non-governmental organization (NGO) and the UN Theme Group on the Problems of HIV/AIDS. The successful work of the Public Congress "Stalist" one of such NGO, in Vinnitsa in 1998-1999, carried out with the financial and methodological support of UNAIDS in the Ukraine, created conditions for the introduction of such components of the strategy of harm reduction as information and educational work, as well as the exchange of syringes and needles, which showed a high degree of efficiency in controlling the spread of HIV/AIDS.