Well, at Medwave we are starting to publish in English. The idea is to have a general biomedical, peer-reviewed, fully open access, online-only journal, with a South-South perspective. We are based in Chile, indexed in MEDLINE as an international journal, and reach out to all of the Ibero-American region. We hope to expand into India some time in the future, which would give us a South Asian outreach.

So from a biomedical publishing standpoint, we are men and women at work on the task.

Well, at Medwave we are starting to publish in English. The idea is to have a general biomedical, peer-reviewed, fully open access, online-only journal, with a South-South perspective. We are based in Chile, indexed in MEDLINE as an international journal, and reach out to all of the Ibero-American region. We hope to expand into India some time in the future, which would give us a South Asian outreach.

So from a biomedical publishing standpoint, we are men and women at work on the task.

I feel that a standardized (and still independent) medical curriculum and linguistic approach among the nations is required for a meaningful cooperation in health care so that cooperative research can be promoted. Student exchanges among these nations for health care courses can be a starting point for this. For this, however, there is a need for a political will and lobbying for the cause. I feel a south-south association for cooperation amongst healthcare professionals is the first step that can be taken to this end.

Already here in East Africa and think in the south there are  a number of initiative most of the inter governmental, i am sure of the names i know there is serious organisation at Arusha, some with nepad? what i am saying, lets not reinvent the wheel, but employ synergy

Hi Norbert, thanks for your comment. Is the organization you are thinking about ECSA-HC: http://bit.ly/1xF80tb?

I will check out NEPAD (http://www.nepad.org/); thanks again.

Jarret, my question is that why was there an EVD outbreak in case these bodies were effectively and efficiently working. I feel that role of health care does not end at research, but at policy formulation at international level. Even though there were many research papers on evd before the current outbreak, but, these did not convert into policies - neither for health promotion, nor for specific prevention of this disease. I feel we have to think critically on our working and its effectiveness on actual health care change or ground reality.

Hi Ankur, part of ECSA-HC's mission is to share information and knowledge in 10 African countries, none of which are in West Africa. Ugandan health experts are now working in West Africa and sharing how they controlled several EVD epidemics.  You can read about ECSA-HC's Best Practices Forum here: http://bit.ly/1xF80tb. Is there an analogous organization in your region of the world? Perhaps regional organizations can learn from one another?

Hi Jarret,

South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) is working on health care in a South Asian context (ref http://saarc-sec.org/areaofcooperation/detail.php?activity_id=11). I had a look  at ECSA-HC website and find that both the bodies are working in more or less similar ways. Further, when I talk about South Asia, I see a region that bears about a quarter of the world's disease burden amidst disparities, turmoil and terrorism. Despite India's economic progress in recent years, a lot needs to be done. Neighbouring countries are in no better state. With this context, I must say that we are following a policy that has not resulted in a reasonably reduced disease burden. The policy is of disease 'control' and not of 'prevention'. This has led to a neglect in primordial and primary preventive services. I feel that SAARC lacks at two major points:

1. Lack of cooperation at health care professional education level.

2. Lack of cooperation at primary care level and primary preventive level research promotion and knowledge sharing.

I feel that such changes would be helpful in reducing disease burden and its cost . Have organizations in your area been successful at this?

Jarret, you are spot on you have the correct URLs of the institutions, i derived this from nepad http://www.nepad.org/humancapitaldevelopment/news/1492/minister-state-kent-promotes-maternal-and-child-health-africa