In the year in which we commemorate the 30th anniversary of the Unified Health System (SUS), Revista Ciência & Saúde Coletiva is proud to present a very wide-ranging selection of texts to our readers. The articles were submitted by more than 100 Brazilian researchers from all regions of the country, which affords us a retrospective overview of the advances, limits and challenges faced over the last three decades.

Relevant themes of Public Health are addressed, such as the history of the SUS, health promotion, policies on tobacco control, food and nutrition, primary health care, health surveillance, coping with infectious and parasitic diseases, maternal and child health, health of the elderly, psychiatric reform, supply, access and use of the SUS. Federalism, regionalization and health networks, debate on universal health systems and universal coverage, the economic-industrial complex of health, management of education and work, pharmaceutical assistance, violence in the SUS, national information systems, health communication, environmental health, occupational health, gender and sexual rights are also studied. Financial dominance in health care, public finances and health tax waivers, international health cooperation, stricto sensu post-graduation in Public Health and SUS perspectives are similarly addressed. In this way, a good deal of the analysis and information assembled is revisited and updated¹1. Victora CG, Leal MC, Barreto ML, Schmidt MI, Monteiro CA, organizadores. Saúde no Brasil: a série The Lancet, 2011. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Fiocruz; 2011..

The many achievements of the SUS over the past three decades need to be highlighted. The various articles that make up this special issue stress the progress in health, delivery of care, training of professionals and workers, as well as in the production of scientific knowledge, technologies and innovations. At the same time, they record the difficulties, problems, misalignments and setbacks. From this standpoint, the greatest obstacle of the SUS has been under-financing, the greatest threat is the financialization of health and the greatest challenge is the political aspect.

We trust that the texts will contribute to the record of the 30-year trajectory of the struggle in the process of construction of the Brazilian health system, serving as material for reflection by society, academia and for the formation of new public health professionals and other health workers in the country.mia and for the formation of new public health physiciansand other health workers in the country.

Jairnilson Silva Paim ¹, José Gomes Temporão ², Gerson Oliveira Penna ³, Nelson Rodrigues dos Santos ⁴, Luiz Felipe Pinto ⁵
Guest editors

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