Finger ischemia in a young lady: an unusual presentation of papillary fibroelastoma with intraventricular location.

An otherwise healthy 32-year-old woman suffered from finger ischemia. An echocardiogram and computed tomography scan revealed a mobile mass in the left ventricle that was attached to the anterior papillary muscle and did not involve the valve leaflets. The tumor was resected, and histopathology confirmed it to be a papillary fibroelastoma. Our case emphasizes the significance of a comprehensive diagnostic work-up for a peripheral ischemic lesion. This resulted in the discovery of an unusual intra-ventricular origin for a commonly benign tumor.

A multidisciplinary, collaborative, inter-agency and comprehensive approach for the control of Chagas Disease as a public health problem in Guatemala.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has defined Chagas Disease hotspots in Central America associated with the vector Triatoma spp. Triatoma dimidiata is a native vector adapted to multiple environments, including intra-domestic and peri-domestic habitats. A multi-institutional project named "Alliances for the elimination of Chagas in Central America" was created to help reduce the incidence of the disease in the region. Activities performed in the field as part of the project included aspects of vector surveillance and control, improvement of houses, diagnosis and treatment of individuals, health promotion, training of human resources and identification of access barriers to diagnosis and treatment. As a base line study, eleven villages, comprised of 1,572 households, were entomologically evaluated (83.4% overall participation); five were found to have very high infestation rates (>20%), three had high infestation rates (8-20%) and three had low-infestation rates (<8%), coinciding with the category of infestation-risk of the houses within each village. Serological tests were carried out in 812 people (>80% participation) in two of the 11 villages and none of the 128 children tested, less than 5 years of age, were positive for Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Community participation in all the activities was high (>70%). The collaboration between several subnational, national, and international institutions, each with specific roles, promoted community participation in the activities of vector control and patient care, thus, establishing a baseline to continue implementing and monitoring project progress.

Protective effect of house screening against indoor Aedes aegypti in Mérida, Mexico: A cluster randomised controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the protective effect of house screening (HS) on indoor Aedes aegypti infestation, abundance and arboviral infection in Merida, Mexico. METHODS: In 2019, we performed a cluster randomised controlled trial (6 control and 6 intervention areas: 100 households/area). Intervention clusters received permanently fixed fiberglass HS on all windows and doors. The study included two cross-sectional entomologic surveys, one baseline (dry season in May 2019) and one post-intervention (PI, rainy season between September and October 2019). The presence and number of indoor Aedes females and blood-fed females (indoor mosquito infestation) as well as arboviral infections with dengue (DENV) and Zika (ZIKV) viruses were evaluated in a subsample of 30 houses within each cluster. RESULTS: HS houses had significantly lower risk for having Aedes aegypti female mosquitoes (odds ratio [OR] = 0.56, 95% CI 0.33-0.97, p = 0.04) and blood-fed females (OR = 0.53, 95% CI 0.28-0.97, p = 0.04) than unscreened households from the control arm. Compared to control houses, HS houses had significantly lower indoor Ae. aegypti abundance (rate ratio [RR] = 0.50, 95% CI 0.30-0.83, p = 0.01), blood-fed Ae. aegypti females (RR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.27-0.85, p = 0.01) and female Ae. aegypti positive for arboviruses (OR = 0.29, 95% CI 0.10-0.86, p = 0.02). The estimated intervention efficacy in reducing Ae. aegypti arbovirus infection was 71%. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence supporting the use of HS as an effective pesticide-free method to control house infestations with Aedes aegypti and reduce the transmission of Aedes-transmitted viruses such as DENV, chikungunya (CHIKV) and ZIKV.

COVID-19 acute respiratory distress syndrome: can iloprost have a role for the treatment?

Pulmonary infection of 2019-nCoV can frequently induce acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) with partial pressure of arterial oxygen/fraction of inspired oxygen ratio (pO2/FiO2) of less than 300 mmHg. Moreover, it can be complicated with cardiac injury or arrhythmia, microvascular and large-vessel thrombosis. We describe a case of a patient with COVID19-ARDS and concomitant critical ischemia of the limbs. Iloprost treatment, an analogue of a prostacyclin PGI2, was started for residual left forefoot ischemia after surgical thromboembolectomy. Unexpectedly, we documented improvement of respiratory performance and lung high resolution computed tomography (HRCT) showed significant regression of the diffuse pulmonary ground-glass opacity. The hypothetical mechanism is that iloprost can enhance perfusion preferentially to well-ventilated lung regions, reduce pressures of peripheral pulmonary vessels and induce reduction of lung interstitial edema. In addition, iloprost antithrombotic effect, endothelial damage repairing and neo-angiogenesis activity could play a relevant role.

[Governance and health: contributions to innovation in health systems]. / Gobernanza y salud: aportes para la innovación en sistemas de salud.

The need to strengthen the field of health policy and systems research has been widely recognized among public health research organizations. This is especially so in the case of Latin America and the Caribbean. Moreover, there is also an increasing interest in the development of new research models with greater capacity to influence policy agendas and health reforms. This publication argues that in order to bridge research to policy, the design of technical solutions alone is largely not sufficient; it is essential to achieve a better understanding of the planning and implementation of health policies. Sound research can play a relevant role, but it has to include new analytical categories and generate appropriate interfaces between researchers and decision makers. This article introduces the Journal's special edition devoted to governance and health policies in the Americas.Its purpose is to present the advances achieved by Latin American researchers,in collaboration with Canadian scientists, in the conceptual and methodological development of governance in health, and to showcase different field projects in the region. The authors present complementary views, both analytical and normative,confirming the advantages and opportunities of developing a governance dimension in health systems research projects. This enables a better understanding of the policy process and consequently increases the potential to influence public policies.

[Governance in health: a conceptual and analytical approach to research]. / Gobernanza en salud: un aporte conceptual y analítico para la investigación.

In the Latin American region there is a notable absence of conceptual coherency in the use of the terms governability and governance. This is true for their application to both the social and political sciences and health. Researchers' understanding of governance varies, and the concept is used heterogeneously within academic circles, with ignorance of the term on the part of decision-makers and great confusion and ambiguity in the meanings used by researchers and decision-makers in the health sector. Instead of the prevailing normative use, promoted by most international agencies, a conceptual and analytical framework for governance is proposed here for health systems and services research. Advances in the design of this framework were used to evaluate the public health insurance program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which allowed the use of the analytical framework to be assessed as a tool for systemizing the social, political, and institutional complexity of the health policy formulation and implementation processes.

[Building bridges between research and policy to extend social protection in health in Latin America and the Caribbean: a strategy for cooperation]. / Construyendo puentes entre investigación y políticas para la extensión de la protección social en salud en América Latina y el Caribe: una estrategia de cooperación conjunta.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and International Development Research Centre (IDRC) have promoted a joint initiative to design, implement, and evaluate innovative strategies for the Extension of Social Protection in Health (SPH) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), involving active partnership between researchers and research users. This initiative was based on a previous review of research on health sector reforms and the recommendations of the workshop on "Health Sector Reforms in the Americas: Strengthening the Links between Research and Policy" (Montreal, Canada, 2001). In its first phase, the initiative supported the development of proposals aiming to extend SPH, elaborated jointly by researchers and decision-makers. In the second phase, the implementation of five of these proposals was supported in order to promote the development of new SPH strategies and new stakeholder interaction models. In this edition of the journal, the process of linking researchers and decision-makers will be analyzed in the context of the five projects supported by this initiative.

Gobernanza en salud: un aporte conceptual y analítico para la investigación / Governance in health: a conceptual and analytical approach to research

Existe una notoria ausencia de coherencia conceptual en el uso de los términos gobernabilidad y gobernanza (considerado sinónimo de "gobernancia") en América Latina, tanto en ciencias sociales y políticas, como en el dominio de la salud. Esto se expresa con mayor fuerza en una diferente comprensión del término gobernanza por parte de los investigadores, un uso heterogéneo en ámbitos académicos, su desconocimiento por parte de los tomadores de decisión, y una gran confusión y ambigüedad de significados en su uso por parte de unos y de otros. En contraposición al uso predominante de carácter normativo, promocionado por parte de la mayoría de las agencias internacionales, se propone aquí el desarrollo y aplicación de un marco conceptual-analítico de gobernanza para la investigación en sistemas y servicios de salud. Los avances en el diseño del marco metodológico fueron aplicados en una investigación de evaluación del Seguro Público de Salud de Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina. Ello permitió valorar su utilidad como herramienta para sistematizar la complejidad social, política e institucional de los procesos de formulación e implementación de las políticas de salud.

In the Latin American region there is a notable absence of conceptual coherency in the use of the terms governability and governance. This is true for their application to both the social and political sciences and health. Researchers' understanding of governance varies, and the concept is used heterogeneously within academic circles, with ignorance of the term on the part of decision-makers and great confusion and ambiguity in the meanings used by researchers and decision-makers in the health sector. Instead of the prevailing normative use, promoted by most international agencies, a conceptual and analytical framework for governance is proposed here for health systems and services research. Advances in the design of this framework were used to evaluate the public health insurance program in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which allowed the use of the analytical framework to be assessed as a tool for systemizing the social, political, and institutional complexity of the health policy formulation and implementation processes.

Construyendo puentes entre investigación y políticas para la extensión de la protección social en salud en América Latina y el Caribe: una estrategia de cooperación conjunta / Building bridges between research and policy to extend social protection in health in Latin America and the Caribbean: a strategy for cooperation

La Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) y el Centro Internacional de Investigaciones para el Desarrollo de Canadá (IDRC) han promovido una iniciativa conjunta para el diseño, ejecución y evaluación de estrategias de extensión de la protección social en salud en América Latina y el Caribe. Esta propuesta se basó en una revisión previa de la investigación sobre reformas del sector salud y en las recomendaciones del Taller La Reforma del Sector Salud en las Américas: Fortaleciendo los Vínculos entre Investigación y Políticas (Montreal, Canadá, 2001). En su primera fase la iniciativa impulsó el desarrollo de propuestas sobre extensión de la protección social en salud que fueron elaboradas en forma conjunta por investigadores y tomadores de decisión. En la segunda fase se apoyó la implementación de cinco de estas propuestas con el propósito de promover el desarrollo de nuevas estrategias de protección social en salud y fomentar nuevos modelos de interacción entre actores. En este número de la revista se analizan los procesos de vinculación entre investigadores y tomadores de decisión en los cinco proyectos apoyados por esta iniciativa.

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and International Development Research Centre (IDRC) have promoted a joint initiative to design, implement, and evaluate innovative strategies for the Extension of Social Protection in Health (SPH) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), involving active partnership between researchers and research users. This initiative was based on a previous review of research on health sector reforms and the recommendations of the workshop on "Health Sector Reforms in the Americas: Strengthening the Links between Research and Policy" (Montreal, Canada, 2001). In its first phase, the initiative supported the development of proposals aiming to extend SPH, elaborated jointly by researchers and decision-makers. In the second phase, the implementation of five of these proposals was supported in order to promote the development of new SPH strategies and new stakeholder interaction models. In this edition of the journal, the process of linking researchers and decision-makers will be analyzed in the context of the five projects supported by this initiative.