Author: Lilian Callo

World Breastfeeding Week 2022 (WBW 2022) was celebrated from August 1 to 7 with the theme “Step up for Breastfeeding – Educate and Support”. In 2018, a World Health Assembly resolution endorsed WBW as an important strategy to promote breastfeeding. BIREME has developed a Window of Knowledge to facilitate access to guidelines and scientific evidence for meeting global nutrition goals. Considering the pandemic scenario, the Window of Knowledge provides the necessary documentation to inform decisions about breastfeeding and COVID-19.

The first semester of 2022 was characterized by important results by BIREME, which continues to support the countries of the Region with information and evidence for decision-making in health in the context of its PTB 22-23, made up of more than 50 projects/products and information services grouped into four initiatives: Information and Knowledge Management, Information Services, Information Intelligence in Health Sciences, and Leadership and Management of BIREME.

In 2022, LILACS, a VHL information source, reached the mark of one million documents, which represents an achievement of real value, as it portrays competence, dedication, resilience, and the reality and challenges faced by thousands of professionals who work in research and the dissemination of scientific evidence on health in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

On June 30^th, the first National Meeting of the Paraguay VHL was held in person in Paraguay, the first since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting is the result of an initiative of the National Health Library, the National Coordinating Center of the Virtual Health Library Network of Paraguay (PY VHL), with the PAHO/WHO Technical Cooperation. The purpose of the meeting was to strengthen Paraguay’s Network of Health Libraries (REDISAL) and to inform and analyze the development of the PY VHL a commitment assumed by the institutions that make up the Network, for the maintenance and sustainability of the PY VHL.

From July 12 to 15, in Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul, PAHO/WHO Brazil participated in the XXXVI CONASEMS, a reference event in public health in Brazil whose programming was coordinated by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the National Council (CNS) and which registered approximately 6,000 participants. BIREME promoted its information products and services in the context of the VHL Network and the Window of Knowledge on Management of the Unified Health System (SUS), launched during the event with CGDI/SAA/SE/MS.

BIREME/PAHO/WHO provides an Evidence Maps Portal to promote the dissemination of and access to a collection of Evidence Maps, with an interface in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. The portal, which is already available, aims to gather and integrate all Evidence Maps developed within the VHL Network and provides access to 36 evidence maps in three main collections.

At the beginning of June 2022, two PAHO/WHO Country Offices (Colombia and Venezuela) and two Specialized Centers (BIREME and PANAFTOSA) that are in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, were involved in a joint and effective action to send 2,000 human rabies vaccines to help handle an emergency in Venezuela. This action became a successful regional cooperation between the different PAHO/WHO agencies in the countries.

BIREME/PAHO/WHO, the Executive Secretariat and the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health of the Ministry of Health of Brazil coordinate the development and implementation of the VHL for indigenous populations, aiming to expand access to and use of scientific and technical information in health services offered to the indigenous population, contributing to strengthening the SUS and improving the Indigenous Health Care Subsystem.

MEDLIST is a drug and device list portal with comments and annotations, as well as being a component of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Regional Platform for Innovation and Access to Health and Technology, developed by the Pan American Health Organization Health/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) with support from BIREME. The platform allows access to the WHO Model Essential Medicines Lists and its main objective is to support users, mainly policymakers, through unified access to national, regional, and international medicines lists.

We highlight the results of the first year in the context of the technical cooperation project between BIREME/PAHO/WHO and the Secretary of Health of the Municipality of São Paulo (SMS-São Paulo) for the updating and maintenance of Secretary of Health of the Municipality of São Paulo Virtual Health Library (SMS São Paulo VHL) – Phase III, through the strengthening of capacities in information and knowledge management.