Health Science Research at a Regional Level: Insights From South America Comment on "The Roles of Regional Organisations in Strengthening Health Research Systems in Africa: Activities, Gaps, and Future Perspectives".

The article seeks to shed light on the role of regional organizations in strengthening health research systems in Africa, how they operate and how they work, as well as debts and future challenges. As can be observed also in South America, the continued strengthening of health research requires strategic thinking about the roles, comparative advantages, and capacity of regional organizations to facilitate the flourishing of health research systems. Health research is a strategic field for the transformation of socio-health inequalities on the one hand and the reduction of regional asymmetries on the other.

[Infant mortality and social inequalities in Argentina, 1980-2017].

Objective: To estimate the trend in infant mortality, inequality between jurisdictions and inequality associated with social conditions in Argentina between 1980 and 2017.

Methods: Ecological and time series study of infant mortality and its inequality. Official data on infant mortality, births and unmet basic needs were obtained; the infant mortality rate, the Gini index and the concentration index were calculated.

Social determinants of pulmonary tuberculosis in Argentina.

Background: In Argentina, approximately 9,000 new cases of tuberculosis (TB) are recorded every year, representing an incidence rate of 22 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. There are no reported studies in Argentina examining the factors that influence the unequal distribution of the disease. The aim of the study was to identify the relationship between the distribution of social and economic factors and TB in Argentina between 2008 and 2012.

Collective health and regional integration in Latin America: An opportunity for building a new international health agenda.

From its origins, the Latin American Social Medicine and the Collective Health (LASM/CH) movements have focused on thinking about health from and for the region. After the implementation of neoliberal policies, social improvements and the geopolitical strengthening of the region became the roots of new regional integration projects in South America. The objective of this article is twofold.

Moving towards South-South International Health: debts and challenges in the regional health agenda.

The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to investigate the increased interest in health as an important dimension of the foreign policy and diplomatic concerns together with the emergence of a new framework for regional health integration and regional health diplomacy. Second, it seeks to understand the role and practices of new regional blocs in the field of health and whether they are conducting to the emergence of new strategies for addressing health regional policies in South America.

Prevalence of tuberculosis respiratory symptoms and associated factors in the indigenous populations of Paraguay (2012).

Background: The prevalence of respiratory symptoms and confirmed tuberculosis (TB) among indigenous groups in Paraguay is unknown.

Methods: This study assessed the prevalence of respiratory symptoms, confirmed pulmonary TB, and associated socio-economic factors among indigenous Paraguayan populations. Indigenous persons residing in selected communities were included in the study.

Building a regional health agenda: A rights-based approach to health in South America.

Attention to health policies in Southern regional organisations reveals a new 'social turn' in the regional political economy of international cooperation. The aims of this paper are twofold. First, it aims to establish the extent to which the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) has adopted and sustained policy interventions committed to addressing social inequities and asymmetries in relation to health, as indicated by regional policy agendas, policy development processes and resourcing.

UNASUR Health: A quiet revolution in health diplomacy in South America.

Since the creation of Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), health policies became a strategic factor in South America to collectively balance the legacy of neoliberal policies in the region. The aim of this article is first to describe the social, political, and economic processes that explain the emergence of UNASUR and its focus on social policy through healthcare. We then analyze how by virtue of , healthcare became the spearhead of cooperation giving way to novel forms of diplomacy.

Social determinants of nonadherence to tuberculosis treatment in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This study aimed to identify the individual and environmental determinants of nonadherence to tuberculosis (TB) treatment in selected districts in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area, in Argentina. We conducted a cross-sectional study using a hierarchical model. Using primary and secondary data, logistic regression was performed to analyze two types of determinants.

Spatial analysis of the tuberculosis treatment dropout, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

OBJECTIVE Identify spatial distribution patterns of the proportion of nonadherence to tuberculosis treatment and its associated factors. METHODS We conducted an ecological study based on secondary and primary data from municipalities of the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. An exploratory analysis of the characteristics of the area and the distributions of the cases included in the sample (proportion of nonadherence) was also carried out along with a multifactor analysis by linear regression.

Determinants of non adherence to tuberculosis treatment in Argentina: barriers related to access to treatment.

Objective: To identify the association between non-adherence to tuberculosis treatment and access to treatment.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires, Argentina. One hundred twenty three patients notified in 2007 (38 non adherent and 85 adherents) were interviewed regarding the health care process and socio-demographic characteristics.

Assisted reproductive outcomes of male cancer survivors.

Purpose: The objective of our study was to evaluate the reproductive outcome of male cancer survivors treated with intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) using cryopreserved sperm and compare it with the same treatment in non-cancer males.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed database derived from cancer and non-cancer patients undergoing sperm cryopreservation from August 2008 to August 2012 at a university-based center. We evaluated the reproductive outcome of those cancer and non-cancer patients that had frozen sperm and returned subsequently to the clinic for assisted reproduction.

Case report: the use of annexin V coupled with magnetic activated cell sorting in cryopreserved spermatozoa from a male cancer survivor: healthy twin newborns after two previous ICSI failures.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to report successful outcome (live births) after sperm sorting with annexin V-MACS on cryopreserved spermatozoa with high level of sperm DNA fragmentation from a cancer patient survivor.

Methods: Cryopreserved spermatozoa were sorted with annexin V-MACS prior to ICSI. Sperm DNA fragmentation was evaluated by SCSA(®) and TUNEL.

[Tuberculosis mortality in Argentina during the twentieth century].

The aim of this article is to provide an analysis of the mortality curve for tuberculosis in Argentina throughout the twentieth century, from 1911 to 2007. Using data from various official sources, the mortality rate is divided into historical phases and sub-periods, in order to show how the behavior of tuberculosis mortality depended on the historical moment. Thus, the progress of the disease is linked to the methods that were developed to combat it.

Oocyte specific oolemmal SAS1B involved in sperm binding through intra-acrosomal SLLP1 during fertilization.

Molecular mechanisms by which fertilization competent acrosome-reacted sperm bind to the oolemma remain uncharacterized. To identify oolemmal binding partner(s) for sperm acrosomal ligands, affinity panning was performed with mouse oocyte lysates using sperm acrosomal protein, SLLP1 as a target. An oocyte specific membrane metalloproteinase, SAS1B (Sperm Acrosomal SLLP1 Binding), was identified as a SLLP1 binding partner.

[Tuberculosis transmission in the triple border region: Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina].

Tuberculosis is a public health problem in South America, but numerous control strategies have proven ineffective in settings with intense transmission. This study aimed to determine whether the triple border region between Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay is an area of high tuberculosis transmission. An ecological study was conducted with incidence data and population estimates for the three countries.

Mouse SLLP1, a sperm lysozyme-like protein involved in sperm-egg binding and fertilization.

This study demonstrates the retention of mouse sperm lysozyme-like protein (mSLLP1) in the equatorial segment of spermatozoa following the acrosome reaction and a role for mSLLP1 in sperm-egg binding and fertilization. Treatment of cumulus intact oocytes with either recmSLLP1 or its antiserum resulted in a significant (P < or = 0.05) inhibition of fertilization.

Nitric oxide is a signaling molecule in spermatozoa.

Low and controlled concentrations of nitric oxide play an important role in sperm physiology. Nitric oxide is produced by spermatozoa and acts as an intracellular signaling molecule in the processes of capacitation and acrosome reaction. It has been documented that during capacitation, nitric oxide interacts with the cAMP-protein kinase A pathway and also is involved in tyrosine nitration of sperm proteins.