Isags second book materializes the proposal of a publication comprising health surveillance in different fields, perspectives and practices, which are part of the region’s diversity. Thus, its main contribution is the consolidation of critical and political knowledge on the South American health surveillance systems, from an integral point-of-view articulating environmental, epidemiological and sanitary surveillance.
Taking this perspective, Isags organized two thematic workshops that led to the collective debate on national experiences and the identification of main issues in the countries of the region, whilst introducing a discussion of the surveillance systems’ signalled challenges in a context of deep changes in epidemiological patterns.
South America presents important particularities in its historical, social and political formation. It is also a geographical space containing deep structural heterogeneities requiring the development of integrating policies that must, nonetheless, take such differences in consideration. Representatives of the member countries of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) had this challenge in mind when, in 2009, they proposed to the South American Health Council an agenda taking health as a fundamental right, vital for human and social development. As a booster for the integration of the nations, health must contribute to asymmetry reduction among the region’s countries. In this sense, the policies and actions of surveillance systems are fundamental.
JosĂŠ Gomes TemporĂŁo Executive Director of Isags
UNASUR
UNION DE NACIONES SURAMERICANAS