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The equitable realization of the right to health: evidence from Latin America

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Edited by: Maria Luisa Escobar, Manuela Villa Uribe, Roberto Lunes and Ana Lorena Ruano

The right to health and universal health coverage are inseparable goals. With a renewed commitment to Universal Health Coverage, the explicit constitutional Right to Health in much of the region and the greatest inequality among regions of the world, documenting achievements and challenges to the equitable realization of the right to health has become ever more pertinent for Latin America. A region seldom discussed in the literature, and whose achievements and challenges are rarely showcased, either at the sub-national, national or regional levels.

This special edition from International Journal for Equity in Health thus seeks to present and promote a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the path towards the realization of the right to health in Latin American countries by presenting a variety of perspectives related to equity in the realization of the right to health in the region.

View all collections published in International Journal for Equity in Health

  1. Overcoming continuing polarization regarding judicial enforcement of health rights in Latin America requires clarifying divergent normative and political premises, addressing the lack of reliable empirical dat...

    Authors: Alicia Ely Yamin, Andrés Pichon-Riviere and Paola Bergallo
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:106
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

  2. Prior research suggests that undernutrition and enteric infections predispose children to stunted growth. Undernutrition and infections have been associated with limited access to healthy diets, lack of sanita...

    Authors: Mireya Vilar-Compte, James Macinko, Beth C. Weitzman and Carlos M. Avendaño-Villela
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:103
    Content type: Research Published on:

  3. Breast cancer is the leading cause of death by cancer in women in Brazil. Timely access to treatment is a priority for health policy in the country. However, indicators of the disease are not equally distribut...

    Authors: Ana Lúcia Lobo Vianna Cabral, Luana Giatti, Ángel Martínez-Hernáez and Mariângela Leal Cherchiglia
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:88
    Content type: Research Published on:

  4. The valuation of medicines as health needs vary depending on the stakeholders involved (users, prescribers, managers, etc.) and their expectations. These factors modulate the role of medicines as a health need...

    Authors: Claudia Marcela Vargas-Pelaez, Marina Raijche Mattozo Rover, Luciano Soares, Carine Raquel Blatt, Aukje K. Mantel-Teeuwisse, Francisco Augusto Rossi, Luis Guillermo Restrepo, María Cristina Latorre, José Julián López, María Teresa Bürgin, Consuelo Silva, Silvana Nair Leite and Mareni Rocha Farias
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:68
    Content type: Research Published on:

  6. Adequate access to sexual and reproductive health services is associated with better results. Analyzing the differences in access and outcomes of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) by share of poverty at the...

    Authors: Juan Pablo Gutiérrez, René Leyva Flores and Belkis Aracena Genao
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:49
    Content type: Research Published on:

  7. Health is recognized as a fundamental right in Brazil’s constitution. In the absence of a clearly defined benefit packages of healthcare services that are financed under the Unified Health System (Sistema Únic...

    Authors: Fabiana da Mota Almeida Peroni, Magnus Lindelow, David Oliveira De Souza and Mirja Sjoblom
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:39
    Content type: Research Published on:

  8. In 2014 the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the “End TB Strategy”, setting new ambitious goals for elimination of tuberculosis (TB). In contrast with previous efforts to control TB, the new strategy a...

    Authors: Camila Gianella, M. Amalia Pesantes, Cesar Ugarte-Gil, David A.J. Moore and Claudia Lema
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:28
    Content type: Research Published on:

  9. The bioethical debate in the world on who should pay for the continuity of post-trials treatment of patients that have medical indication remains obscure and introduces uncertainties to the patients involved i...

    Authors: Roberto Iunes, Manuela Villar Uribe, Janet Bonilla Torres, Marina Morgado Garcia, Juliana Alvares-Teodoro, Francisco de Assis Acurcio and Augusto Afonso Guerra Junior
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:26
    Content type: Research Published on:

  10. Despite representing 70 million people in Latin America, access to comprehensive rehabilitation and participation in the community remains a challenge for persons with disability (PWDs) in the region. Through ...

    Authors: María Luisa Toro-Hernández, Alejandra Mondragón-Barrera, Sara Múnera-Orozco, Laura Villa-Torres and Wendy Camelo-Castillo
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:18
    Content type: Research Published on:

  11. Sustainability and the ability to maintain the right to health, with the guarantee of access to quality medicines and health services, have been a great challenge for countries with universal health systems. T...

    Authors: Roberto F. Iunes, Manuela Villar Uribe, Janet Bonilla Torres, Marina Morgado Garcia, Carolina Zampirolli Dias, Juliana Alvares-Teodoro, Francisco de Assis Acurcio and Augusto Afonso Guerra-Junior
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:11
    Content type: Research Published on:

  12. Equity has been acknowledged as a required principle for the fulfilment of the universal right to health once it seeks to tackle avoidable and unfair inequalities among individuals. In Brazil, a country marked...

    Authors: Luciana de Melo Nunes Lopes, Francisco de Assis Acurcio, Semíramis Domingues Diniz, Tiago Lopes Coelho and Eli Iola Gurgel Andrade
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:10
    Content type: Research Published on:

  13. Though the right to health is included in Haiti’s constitution, little progress has been made to expand universal health coverage nationwide, a strategy to ensure access to health services for all, while preve...

    Authors: Marion Cros, Eleonora Cavagnero, Jean Patrick Alfred, Mirja Sjoblom, Nicolas Collin and Tania Mathurin
    Citation: International Journal for Equity in Health 2019 18:77
    Content type: Research Published on: