Intended for healthcare professionals
Latin America’s global leadership in health
Showcasing Brazil and regional health leadership and opportunities in a G20 presidency year
In 2024, Latin America’s largest country, Brazil, holds the G20 presidency for the first time and has an unmatched opportunity to put health and the region at the centre of the global political, economic, and sustainability agendas.
2024 is a landmark year for Brazil and for the region – and an opportunity to spotlight health being at the heart of building a just world and a sustainable planet. To advance these aims, The BMJ has collected some of our recent articles in key areas, including the politics and decolonisation of health, local innovations and global lessons, and the fight for gender equality and reproductive rights in Latin America.
POLITICAL CONTEXTS AND DECOLONISATION OF HEALTH
G20 and the global south: opportunities for global health
With the G20 baton being passed from Brazil to South Africa in 2025, Maria de Lourdes Aguiar Oliveira and colleagues highlight the crucial opportunities this presents in furthering South-South cooperation and global equity & resilience
G20 Health: strengths and shortfalls of the Rio de Janeiro Declarations in an era of inequity, war, climate change, and pandemics
Deisy Ventura and colleagues examine the strengths and shortfalls of the G20 health declarations and offer an analysis of how glimmers of hope for global health equity could be threatened by political upheaval
Pathways to strengthen the climate resilience of health systems in the Peruvian Amazon by working with Indigenous leaders, communities and health officers
Claudia Vidal-Cuellar and colleagues examine how indigenous and official health systems in the Peruvian Amazon are adapting to climate change
Brazil’s global leadership in health at the g20: an opportunity to support public health systems and promote the decolonisation of global health
Deisy Ventura and colleagues argue that Brazil’s G20 presidency could be used to encourage countries to move away from a market driven approach and create true universal health provision
From speech to action: using Brazil’s 2024 presidency of G20 to embed equity in global health
Brazil’s 2024 presidency of G20 should lead to a global health architecture based on equity and public values, argue Vitor Henrique Pinto Ido and colleagues
Unmatched opportunity: Brazil must use its G20 presidency to focus on transformative global pacts
Paulo Buss and colleagues lay out three health priorities for Brazil to advance on the G20's stated agenda to build a just world and a sustainable planet
Strengthening Latin America’s presence in global health
The BMJ’s regional advisory board will give this important region a louder voice
Argentina’s healthcare is crumbling under its worst ever dengue epidemic and Milei’s presidency
Argentina’s healthcare system is under threat from the dengue crisis and its president’s systematic dismantling of science, Martín de Ambrosio reports
Brazil’s struggle to reconstruct healthcare post-Bolsonaro
After years of devastation wrought by covid-19 and former president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil is attempting to get its healthcare system back up and running. Rodrigo de Oliveira Andrade reports
After testing times, Brazil is back
Synergy between public health system principles and foreign policy must be resumed
LOCAL INNOVATIONS AND GLOBAL LESSONS
The boom in fruit flavour cigarettes is driving youth smoking in Latin America
Fruit flavour cigarettes are an expanding market for big tobacco companies despite their promises to cut smoking and protect young people. The Examination, Salud Con Lupa, and LaBot investigate
Solidarity kitchens: How a pandemic food bank offers much more
A grassroots food assistance programme that grew out of covid-19 is now countering obesity and other diseases of poverty. Rodrigo de Oliveira Andrade reports
Why are doctors being warned about the Oropouche virus?
Luke Taylor explains the risks associated with the spread of Oropouche virus and why doctors are being warned to look out for symptoms
Flooding and climate denialism are harming millions of people in southern Brazil
Raquel Canuto discusses the damage caused by flooding in southern Brazil and how it was exacerbated by climate change denial and a lack of prevention measures by the government
After years of decline, Brazil sees vaccination coverage rise in 2023
Rodrigo de Oliveira Andrade looks at the reasons for the fall in coverage and what the country has done to counter it
Lessons on planetary health from traditional Quilombola communities of the Brazilian Amazon
The lessons presented in this article draw on the experiences and strategies of the Quilombola communities of the Abaetetuba islands, located in the north east of Pará state, Brazil
Covid-19: Latin America defies nationalism and circumstance to develop its own vaccines
Latin American countries not only developed their own covid vaccine prototypes but also rolled them out. Martín De Ambrosio reports on a region taking its first steps towards vaccine security
Could Brazil’s community health model ease pressure on NHS general practice?
A scheme brought from South America to a deprived London estate aims to bridge the gap between the NHS and people who don’t engage with health services. Charles Ebikeme examines its goals, successes, and challenges
Legacy of covid-19 for indigenous health in the Brazilian Amazon
Pre-existing vulnerabilities meant that covid-19 hit indigenous people particularly hard, but as Christine Ro reports, it also kickstarted initiatives to improve health
GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN’S REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
Lack of abortion care is a threat to women’s health in Latin America
Inequalities in and restrictions to sexual health and rights are endangering women, write Mercedes Colomar and Veronica Fiol
The downstream effects of COVID-19 on adolescent girls in the Peruvian Amazon: qualitative findings on how the pandemic affected education and reproductive health
Lisa Woodson and colleagues investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the education and reproductive health of adolescent indigenous girls in the Peruvian Amazon basin
Latin America is catching up on HPV vaccination and screening
Andrew J Wight reports that investment in vaccination programmes and adoption of new screening technology are beginning to make progress on Latin America’s high cervical cancer death rates
Women’s leadership and gender equality in Latin America: the journey is far from over
Efforts to promote women’s empowerment, challenge discrimination, and implement gender responsive policies can help create a more equitable Latin American region, says Patricia Garcia
Abortion is decriminalised in Mexico as “green wave” sweeps the region
Mexico’s Supreme Court has repealed a law criminalising abortion, in the latest cause for celebration for reproductive rights activists around the world
Mothers of the River: raising the ceiling for maternal care in the Amazon
A grassroots project is delivering antenatal care to hard-to-reach parts of the Peruvian Amazon—which could provide wider health benefits to the community, reports Lesley Evans Ogden
How South America became a global role model for abortion rights
As the US overturns Roe v Wade, South America is making a different U turn after decades of repressive laws—and it could soon produce the world’s strongest constitutional guarantee of the right to abortion. Luke Taylor reports
This collection of articles on health in Latin America will be updated regularly. The lead editor is Jocalyn Clark, International Editor, The BMJ. Members of the BMJ’s regional advisory board for Latin America are here .
Images: 1) Xinhua/Alamy 2) Lalo de Almeida/Panos Pictures 3)Eduardo Martino/Panos 4) Lalo de Almeida/Panos Pictures 5) Musuk Nolte/Panos 6)Giacomo Pirozzi/Panos Pictures
