Mundo Sano Foundation’s Annual Conference on Global Health Focuses on People

On May 27th, Mundo Sano Foundation held its second Annual Global Health Conference, in Madrid (Spain), at the Real Academia Nacional de Medicina.

This event consolidates a space for dialogue committed to updating and sharing strategies aimed at eliminating various diseases as a public health problem. The meeting helped inform decisions, build consensus, and secure funds to bring better health to the people who need it most.

The foundation’s director, Dr. Marina Gold, highlighted the need to reaffirm commitments to disease elimination, especially given the complex global situation of recent years. Likewise, she emphasized humanizing processes by focusing on people, noting that “health systems are relationships between people”, since patients and professionals share the same social complexities and difficulties.

Chagas disease had a key role during the interventions, due to the challenges this Neglected Tropical Disease poses to public health systems. It is estimated that more than 9 million people are affected by Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes the disease, and more than 70,000 are believed to be in Spain, the host country of the session.

As noted by Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the historical leadership of the Americas in disease elimination processes serves as an example for affected non-endemic countries—such as Spain and others in Europe, the United States, Asia, and Oceania—in developing regional tools. Indeed, in the words of Dr. Roberto Chuit, coordinator of the Chagas program in Mundo Sano Foundation, the tools already exist; but there is still a lot do in terms of delivering them on time to those who need them most.

Photo source: Mundo Sano Foundation