Browsing by Author "Breilh, Jaime"

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Establishing a community of practice of researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and communities to sustainably manage environmental health risks in Ecuador
(2011-11-08) Spiegel, Jerry M.; Breilh, Jaime; Beltrán, Efraín; Parra, Jorge; Solis, Fernanda; Yassi, Annalee; Rojas, Alejandro; Orrego, Elena; Henry, Bonnie; Bowie, William R.; Pearce, Laurie; Gaibor, Juan; Velásquez, Patricio; Concepción, Miriam; Parkes, Margot
Background The Sustainably Managing Environmental Health Risk in Ecuador project was launched in 2004 as a partnership linking a large Canadian university with leading Cuban and Mexican institutes to strengthen the capacities of four Ecuadorian universities for leading community-based learning and research in areas as diverse as pesticide poisoning, dengue control, water and sanitation, and disaster preparedness. Methods In implementing curriculum and complementary innovations through application of an ecosystem approach to health, our interdisciplinary international team focused on the question: “Can strengthening of institutional capacities to support a community of practice of researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and communities produce positive health outcomes and improved capacities to sustainably translate knowledge?” To assess progress in achieving desired outcomes, we review results associated with the logic framework analysis used to guide the project, focusing on how a community of practice network has strengthened implementation, including follow-up tracking of program trainees and presentation of two specific case studies. Results By 2009, train-the-trainer project initiation involved 27 participatory action research Master’s theses in 15 communities where 1200 community learners participated in the implementation of associated interventions. This led to establishment of innovative Ecuadorian-led master’s and doctoral programs, and a Population Health Observatory on Collective Health, Environment and Society for the Andean region based at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar. Building on this network, numerous initiatives were begun, such as an internationally funded research project to strengthen dengue control in the coastal community of Machala, and establishment of a local community eco-health centre focusing on determinants of health near Cuenca. Discussion Strengthening capabilities for producing and applying knowledge through direct engagement with affected populations and decision-makers provides a fertile basis for consolidating capacities to act on a larger scale. This can facilitate the capturing of benefits from the “top down” (in consolidating institutional commitments) and the “bottom up” (to achieve local results). Conclusions Alliances of academic and non-academic partners from the South and North provide a promising orientation for learning together about ways of addressing negative trends of development. Assessing the impacts and sustainability of such processes, however, requires longer term monitoring of results and related challenges.
La interacción entre la exposición a agrotóxicos y componentes relevantes del sistema inmune en comunidades de La Paz Bolivia: una mirada desde la epidemiología crítica
(Universidad de Cuenca, 2017-12) García, Carmiña; Breilh, Jaime; Larrea, María de Lourdes
Health from critical epidemiology is a complex, dynamic and dialectic process, socially determined, with general, particular, and singular domains where unhealthy (destructive) processes and healthy (protective) processes are developed. Some authors point to an increase in the prevalence of diseases associated with alterations in the immune response, due to pesticides exposure, but this information in humans is limited and controversial. We intend to know the interaction between exposure to pesticides and components of the immune system: MPO and FAG phagocytic enzymes by cytochemistry and Interleukins 6 and 8 by chemiluminescence) in 5 communities of La Paz Bolivia, applying a questionnaire corresponding to critical epidemiology (matrix of processes) and work stress. Epidemiological profiles of 113 volunteers (farmers) were analyzed: 60 women and 53 men, finding significant differences (Chi-square): lifestyle typology (economic reproduction, pesticides use and secondary work), destructive processes, protective equipment, training, age. Observing decreased enzymatic activity MPO and increased FAG, for both genders of active working age. Without significance: interleukins and work stress. There is an affectation in the enzymatic functionality in cells of the first line of defense of the immune system and in the concentration ratio of interleukins, in farmers more or less exposed to pesticides considering their styles and ways of life.
The People's Health Movement: health for all now
(2005-07) San Sebastián, M.; Hurtig, A. K.; Breilh, Jaime; Peralta, A.Q.
We are moving away from the year 2000, and the goal of "health for all" remains distant. Economic globalization, which many consider to be one of the most serious threats to health, moves ahead, along with globalization of international health policies. A small number of powerful actors are in charge of setting the agenda, and they relegate to an inferior position the World Health Organization, which has moved away from the goal of "health for all." All of this has helped to promote a neoliberal mentality in the field of health. The People's Health Movement was created with the objective of reestablishing the right to comprehensive health and to development with equity as principal priorities of health policies at the local, national, and international levels. The People's Health Movement uses as a strategy the People's Charter for Health, which was approved at the first People's Health Assembly, which was held in Bangladesh in 2000. The Charter expresses collective concerns and the belief in a better and healthier world as a meeting point in order to promote a world health movement and a call for radical action. In July 2005 the People's Health Movement will hold the People's Health Assembly 2, in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador. The slogan of that meeting will be "The voices of the earth are calling!--let's build a healthy world." Among the topics that will be examined at the meeting are: health as a fundamental human right; militarization and occupation; environmental degradation; emerging and reemerging pandemics; equity, poverty, and health; the importance of cultural diversity; social and political violence; health in the hands of the people; health at work; traditional medicine and bioenergetic medicine; gender; and health sector reform. The objective of the People's Health Movement is to help to reach the Millennium Development Goals and to smooth the path toward attaining health for all, in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as in the rest of the world.