Brazil - The new challenge of adult health

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Brazil - The new challenge of adult health
Document Type: Publication
Rapporteur: John Briscoe
The World Bank currently supports major Brazilian programs designed to improve maternal and child health and reduce infectious diseases and other basic health problems. This study focuses on the problems which the Brazilian health system will face in coming decades as the population gets older, and as chronic and degenerative diseases and AIDS increase. It concentrates on the causes of mortality. Although problems, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancers and injuries, have existed for centuries in Brazil, they have come into prominance as the epidemiologic and demographic transition is completed, and are referred to as " new " or " post-transition " problems in this report. This study concentrates on how the current health system operates, what new challenges it will face in the next few decades, and how it might deal with these challenges.