Brazil’s National Secretary of Health Oversight, Jarbas Barbosa, said, December 15, that the partnership with the American government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been essential to the improvement of the fight against epidemics of unknown diseases.
“At the end of the decade of the ´90´s, Brazil was unprepared to deal with these situations. Outbreaks occurred, and the cause was not found out, missing the chance to prevent the outbreak of future epidemics,” Barbosa said.
Cooperation between the two countries has existed for four years. During this period, Brazilian professionals have received training, and the country has been awarded international prizes in this area.
According to the Secretary, the purpose of the watchdog operations is to control new and unknown diseases with greater agility.
“In today’s world, airport barriers are useless,” according to Barbosa. “Someone can travel around the world during the period of contamination of a disease and arrive, apparently healthy, in a country.”
Barbosa said that the partnership is being revised and should be extended for another four years. The cooperation agreement is being discussed with a Disease Control mission that has been in Brazil for two days.
“We want to maintain and amplify this permanent training process,” Barbosa said.
Agência Brasil
Translator: David Silberstein