My journey in public health in the Caribbean.

As part of its 100th-anniversary celebration, the Pan American Health Organization has named 12 persons as "Public Health Heroes of the Americas" in recognition of their noteworthy contributions to public health in the Region of the Americas. Over the course of this year, the Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública/Pan American Journal of Public Health will be carrying pieces written by or about these heroes. Como parte de la celebración de su Centenario, la Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) ha distinguido con el título de Héroes de la Salud Pública a 12 personalidades que se han destacado por su valiosa contribución a la salud en el continente americano.

Forty years. An introduction to the development of a Caribbean public health.

The development of public health and primary care in Jamaica is examined with particular reference to the historical events which paved the way for their development: notably, the collaborative work undertaken by the Rockefeller Foundation (Commissions on hookworm, tuberculosis, malaria, yaws); recommendations of the Moyne Commission (leading to the establishment of the West Indies School of Public Health); and the Irvine Commission which recommended the establishment of the University College of the West Indies. A confluence of political, social and international activity in the 1970s proved catalytic in the development of the current ethos of primary health care, and the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine was instrumental in the training of the most innovative addition to the primary care health team, the community health aide. Undergraduate and postgraduate training programmes of the Department are highlighted as it celebrates its fortieth anniversary.