Resumo em Inglês:

This piece describes how pharmacoeconomic studies promote rational and efficient drug use. The pharmaceutical industry of Cuba has become more interested in such analytical techniques and has begun to use them to develop strategies for research and development, production, and product marketing. This paper describes research related to pharmacological treatments, through practical examples of pharmacoeconomic evaluations carried out jointly by the pharmaceutical sector and the health care system in Cuba. These efforts demonstrate the applicability that pharmacoeconomics has for health decision-making based on clinical effectiveness and the costs of the pharmacotherapeutics used.

Resumo em Inglês:

This document summarizes a report on the current state of knowledge of the etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of Alzheimer's disease and on the primary research activities carried out in these areas during the year 2000 under the auspices of the National Institute of Aging and other units of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States of America. In research on the etiology of the disease, key areas of attention have included amyloid, presenilins, apolipoprotein E, and other genetic ties; apoptosis; and protein aggregation in other neurodegenerative diseases. With respect to diagnosis, the progress that has been made is analyzed in the areas of neuroimaging and neuropsychological tests, clinical-pathological correlations, and the identification of biological disease markers, with the goal of being able to diagnose the disease before irreversible cognitive and functional deterioration takes place. Research on pharmacological treatment has been centered on three primary concerns: short-term maintenance of cognitive function, disease prevention, and treatment of behavioral symptoms. Another subject of great importance is support for those who provide care for patients. The report also deals with several areas related to research infrastructure and the contributions of other units of the NIH.

Resumo em Inglês:

This piece summarizes a report from the World Health Organization on the WHO Global Strategy for Containment of Antimicrobial Resistance. The Strategy provides a framework for interventions aimed at minimizing the appearance and spread of resistant microorganisms, through a series of measures designed to: reduce morbidity and the spread of infections, improve access to appropriate antimicrobial drugs, improve the use of antimicrobial drugs, strengthen health systems and their surveillance capacity, enforce regulations and legislation, and promote the development of new drugs and vaccines. The Strategy report makes a series of recommendations for interventions related to: patients and the community in general, those who prescribe and dispense antimicrobial drugs, hospitals, the administration of antimicrobial drugs to animals destined for human consumption, national governments and health systems, the development of drugs and vaccines, the promotion and advertising of drugs, and international aspects of containing resistance to antimicrobial drugs. In addition, the report puts forth a model for implementing the WHO Strategy, in which a step-by-step approach is used to discern the most important interventions and to identify a logical sequence for putting them into place.