The Lancet - Health in Brazil

Launched in Brasília May 9, 2011

Brazil has made significant improvements in maternal and child health, emergency care, and in reducing the burden of infectious diseases. But the news is not all good. The country continues to have a burden of injury mortality that is different from other countries due to the large number of murders, especially using firearms. Obesity levels are increasing and caesarean section rates are the highest in the world.

Brazil now has the opportunity to move closer towards its ultimate goal of universal, equitable, and sustainable health care as enshrined in the 1988 Constitution. To highlight this opportunity, The Lancet is publishing a Series of six papers that critically examine what the country’s policies have achieved and where future challenges lie. As Cesar Victora and colleagues conclude in the final paper of the Series: "the challenge is ultimately political, requiring continuous engagement by Brazilian society as a whole to secure the right to health for all Brazilian people."

Series Comments

Brazil: towards sustainability and equity in health

Sabine Kleinert, Richard Horton

Full Text | PDF (English) | PDF (Portugese)

Brazil: structuring cooperation for health

Paulo Buss

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Brazil’s health-care reform: social movements and civil society

Sonia Fleury

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Higher education and health care in Brazil

Naomar Almeida-Filho

Full Text | PDF (English) | PDF (Portugese)

The impact of the Brazil experience in Latin America

Ricardo Uauy

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Series Papers

The Brazilian health system: history, advances, and challenges

Jairnilson Paim, Claudia Travassos, Celia Almeida, Ligia Bahia, James Macinko

Summary | Full Text | PDF (English) | PDF (Portugese)

Maternal and child health in Brazil: progress and challenges

Cesar G Victora, Estela M L Aquino, Maria do Carmo Leal, Carlos Augusto Monteiro, Fernando C Barros, Celia L Szwarcwald

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Successes and failures in the control of infectious diseases in Brazil: social and environmental context, policies, interventions, and research needs

Mauricio L Barreto, M Gloria Teixeira, Francisco I Bastos, Ricardo A A Ximenes, Rita B Barata, Laura C Rodrigues

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Chronic non-communicable diseases in Brazil: burden and current challenges

Maria Inês Schmidt, Bruce Bartholow Duncan, Gulnar Azevedo e Silva, Ana Maria Menezes, Carlos Augusto Monteiro, Sandhi Maria Barreto, Dora Chor, Paulo Rossi Menezes

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Violence and injuries in Brazil: the effect, progress made, and challenges ahead

Michael Eduardo Reichenheim, Edinilsa Ramos de Souza, Claudia Leite Moraes, Maria Helena Prado de Mello Jorge, Cosme Marcelo Furtado Passos da Silva, Maria Cecília de Souza Minayo

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Health conditions and health-policy innovations in Brazil: the way forward

Cesar G Victora, Mauricio L Barreto, Maria do Carmo Leal, Carlos A Monteiro, Maria Ines Schmidt, Jairnilson Paim, Francisco I Bastos, Celia Almeida, Ligia Bahia, Claudia Travassos, Michael Reichenheim, Fernando C Barros,

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