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Welcome
Note
Welcome
to Porto Alegre, Brazil and the XVIII
IEA World Congress of Epidemiology in 2008!
Epidemiology
in Brazil is young and
enthusiastic. Its style of practice in this large Latin America country
has unique features. As a key arm of ABRASCO, the Brazilian Association
of Collective Health, epidemiology is committed to the
public’s health and to the construction of a strong national
health system offering universal coverage. As the organizers of the
Brazilian Congress of Epidemiology in 2008, we extend a warm invitation
to the IEA and its members to join us, placing its 2008 encounter
within this vibrant Brazilian context.
Porto Alegre
Porto
Alegre, our venue, is an attractive site for a successful international
meeting. Though perhaps lacking a bit of the hustle and bustle of
larger Brazilian cities, Porto Alegre, with its million and a half
inhabitants, is a modern metropolis. Capital of Brazil’s
southernmost state, its population reflects the mixture of German and
Italian immigrants of the 1800s with earlier immigrants from the Azores
and the gauchos, descents of the region’s Portuguese,
Spanish, indigenous and African settlers.
The city’s features can charm its visitors. The sun setting
over the Guaíba estuary; its parks and tree-lined streets,
its multicultural scenario, including a rich gastronomy reflecting its
many pasts, and the gaucho hospitality are just a few of its
attractions. With the FIERGS convention center, a modern facility with
capacity to hold meetings of over 5000 participants, Porto Alegre has
attracted many national and international events over the last 15
years, including four encounters of the World Social Forum.
Our
Theme
Our
theme:
Epidemiology
in the Construction of Health for All: Tools for a Changing World
will highlight the following issues:
Construction:
Epidemiology is one of several disciplines, and epidemiologists one of
several categories of social actors involved in improving population
health. The word construction
emphasizes the key role of epidemiology, a discipline which integrates
those around it, in this multi- and trans-disciplinarity task.
Health
for All:
In reemphasizing this now traditional motto, we highlight
epidemiology’s role at national and local levels in
developing, maintaining and renovating systems offering health care to
whole populations. Within this context, issues related to equity and to
inclusion of disadvantaged population groups are essential. The recent
Brazilian experience with a universal health system will be
highlighted.
Tools:
Epidemiology is largely about tools for studying disease frequency, for
establishing exposure-disease relationships, for testing health
interventions and for evaluating health systems. The idea of tools also
extends to the construction and evaluation of preventive and curative
health services, so as to permit health workers at all levels to
provide evidence-based care.
Changing
World: The Congress will
highlight
the many changes occurring in the early 21st Century: demographic and
epidemiological transitions; environmental alterations; the growth in
research capacity for addressing health problems around the world; and
the widening gap in health status between the rich and poor found both
between and within nations and accompanied by a global divide in access
to the benefits of scientific progress.
Possible
topics are:.
- Collaboration between
epidemiology and other research disciplines
- Epidemiologists and
policy-makers: how to work together
- Access to scientific
information
- Epidemiology and the
Millennium Development Goals
- Epidemiology and
primary
health care
- International and
intra-national inequalities in health
- What can other
countries
learn from the successes and failures of the Brazilian experience?
- Epidemiology in health
systems and policy research
- Epidemiology in the
development, implementation and evaluation of clinical and public
health guidelines
- Epidemiological methods
for
decentralized health management
- Translation of research
findings into practice
- Health promotion,
disease
prevention and surveillance for non-communicable diseases
- New paradigms for
disease
causation: from the molecule to the population
- Life course epidemiology
- Global trends in health
and
in its determinants
- New exposures and new
diseases
- Terrorism and violence:
threats to public health
- The eminence of new
pandemics
- Environmental change
and
public health
- Managing
noncommunicable
diseases in low and middle-income countries
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