BIREME Bulletin n° 67

World Health Day was celebrated last April 7, the date that marks the anniversary of the founding of the World Health Organization in 1948. Faced with the current pandemic of COVID-19, a planet with increasing pollution rates, and communicable and non-communicable diseases, the theme of this year’s World Health Day is “Our Planet, Our Health”. To provide scientific and technical information on health and environment, BIREME has produced a Window of Knowledge on this theme.

The technical cooperation program of BIREME/PAHO/WHO is characterized by the Virtual Health Library (VHL), which in March 2022 completed 24 years of operation in the countries of the Region. Created in 1998, the VHL was motivated by the advent of the Internet, which enabled the operation of information sources via the Web, as well as their access by users. Thus, the VHL is consolidated as a virtual space for access scientific health information and evidence in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

In order to promote the publication of scientific research results and clinical observation in Nicaragua and to train participants in the main concepts that govern Scholarly communication in health sciences, a series of webinars on this topic was organized. The trainings are part of the Action Plan for the dissemination of the Nicaragua VHL, a project involving BIREME, PAHO/WHO Nicaragua, and UNAN Managua.

The search for reliable scientific information in the format and language needed for intervention through evidence-based policies and practices is particularly relevant in a pandemic scenario, when there is also much false information being disseminated. To facilitate and improve access to specific scientific documents, the coordinators of the LILACS Indexers Network and the Reference Network developed a joint action to create technical notes on indexing study types, methodology for validating search filters, and training for members of the LILACS and VHL networks.

BIREME/PAHO/WHO conducted training sessions for the Brazilian and Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information Networks on the Information Sources of the Virtual Health Library (VHL), with the objective of improving the quality of the data inserted in the VHL bibliographic databases by professionals of the Cooperating Centers in Latin American and Caribbean countries.

With the theme “Harnessing innovation to reduce the burden of malaria and save lives”, on World Malaria Day 2022, celebrated on April 25, PAHO/WHO calls on countries in the region to intensify efforts to combat malaria through evidence-based prevention, diagnosis, and treatment interventions adapted to local contexts. See also the Window of Knowledge on Malaria in the Americas developed by BIREME.