Svea Closser and Rashid Jooma argue that achieving polio eradication and strengthening Pakistan's health system must focus not just on international engagement but also on local partnerships with Lady Health Workers and other ground-level staff. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary.

Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries comprise a major production subsystem of the health industrial complex in Brazil. It stands out for both its economic importance and its prominent role in developing new technologies in strategic areas. Strengthening the local production of generic drugs in the last decade has significantly increased the number of Brazilian companies in the local phar...

BACKGROUND TO THE DEBATE The global burden of disease falls disproportionately upon the world's low-income countries, which are often struggling with weak health systems. Both the public and private sector deliver health care in these countries, but the appropriate role for each of these sectors in health system strengthening remains controversial. This debate examines whether the private secto...

Objective: describing the characteristics of the articulation between the services that compose the mental health network of children and adolescents, through the referral and counter-referral system. Method: descriptive study developed in 25 services, based on information obtained from self-administered questionnaires applied to coordinators through the Ministry of Health electronic system. Da...