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The paper analyzes formulations in the area of international health at the time of the International Conference on Primary Health Care, held in Alma Ata, Kazakhstan, in 1978. It is set within the context of the broader debate on development and international cooperation throughout the 1970s. Three sets of concepts and prescriptive formulations were examined namely: the New International Economic Order (NIEO), the Dag Hammarskjöld Report (DHR) and the Basic Human Needs Approach (BHN). They were compared with the proposals in documents from the World Health Organization and in the statements from Halfdan Mahler, its director. As a whole, this set of formulations and proposals share a broad spectrum of terms and notions, as well as much of the expectations for change and tensions that existed in the classic period of development during the later years of the post-war era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents visual evidence and supporting text for some of the World Health Organization's (WHO) most notable achievements in the last 60 years. Among others, the achievements include the creation of a global network for the facilitated communication of epidemiological information, the impressive campaign to reduce malaria worldwide and the successful promotion of both comprehensive and selective primary health care. These achievements over the course of its first 60 years have established WHO's unquestioned importance as the preeminent international health agency and augur well for the future.

Medical developments in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century have received little attention. This study examines the Mexican responses to the success and failures of an important international health campaign of the 1950S: malaria eradication. During the 1950S malaria became the disease of central concern for international and US agencies working in developing countries (as yellow fever and hookworm were for tropical health during the early twentieth century). This article outlines the motivations, design and techniques of the campaign. It concentrates on two local responses: first, the enthusiastic support displayed by personnel working in the field; and, secondly, the reactions against the campaign of a local doctor - who revealed some of the inadequacies of malaria eradication - and of two medical anthropologists, who emphasised the scant attention paid to the cultural and social aspects of the campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I present a historical study of the role played by the World Health Organization and UNICEF in the emergence and diffusion of the concept of primary health care during the late 1970s and early 1980s. I have analyzed these organizations' political context, their leaders, the methodologies and technologies associated with the primary health care perspective, and the debates on the meaning of primary health care. These debates led to the development of an alternative, more restricted approach, known as selective primary health care. My study examined library and archival sources; I cite examples from Latin America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports that the primary health care is the latest expression of a belief that can be traced to the 19th-century pathologist Rudolf Virchow. The solution to major human disease problems resides not only in the best science available but also in brave political proposals for social justice and the improvement of the life of the poor. From this perspective, health is not only a by-product of social changes but an instrument to promote such changes and health workers are in the vanguard.

Presents a reply by Marcus Cueto to a letter to the editor about his article "The Origins of Primary Health Care and Selective Primary Health Care," in the 2004 issue of the "American Journal of Public Health."

Latin America continues to segregate different social groups into separate health-system segments, including two separate public sector blocks: a well resourced social security for salaried workers and their families and a Ministry of Health serving poor and vulnerable people with low standards of quality and needing a frequently impoverishing payment at point of service. This segregation shows Latin America’s longstanding economic and social inequality, cemented by an economic framework that predicted that economic growth would lead to rapid formalisation of the economy. Today, the institutional setup that organises the social segregation in health care is perceived, despite improved life expectancy and other advances, as a barrier to fulfilling the right to health, embodied in the legislation of many Latin American countries. This Series paper outlines four phases in the history of Latin American countries that explain the roots of segmentation in health care and describe three paths taken by countries seeking to overcome it: unification of the funds used to finance both social security and Ministry of Health services (one public payer); free choice of provider or insurer; and expansion of services to poor people and the non-salaried population by making explicit the health-care benefits to which all citizens are entitled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this analysis of the global workforce, the Joint Learning Initiative--a consortium of more than 100 health leaders--proposes that mobilization and strengthening of human resources for health, neglected yet critical, is central to combating health crises in some of the world's poorest countries and for building sustainable health systems in all countries. Nearly all countries are challenged by worker shortage, skill mix imbalance, maldistribution, negative work environment, and weak knowledge base. Especially in the poorest countries, the workforce is under assault by HIV/AIDS, out-migration, and inadequate investment. Effective country strategies should be backed by international reinforcement. Ultimately, the crisis in human resources is a shared problem requiring shared responsibility for cooperative action. Alliances for action are recommended to strengthen the performance of all existing actors while expanding space and energy for fresh actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]