EDITORIAL

Scientific knowledge, dissemination and reduction of regional inequities

Gerson Oliveira Penna

President of the Editorial Council of the Pan-Amaz J Health Secretary of Surveillance in Health

It has been seven decades dedicated to the enormous contribution of the staff of the Evando Chagas Institute (IEC), particularly its researchers, to the building of scientific knowledge. Their contributions are of inestimable value, especially in the field of biomedical research and regarding the health risks associated with the great biological diversity in the Amazon and its socioeconomic and social determinants.

The researches developed by IEC identified new etiologic agents, described and formulated hypotheses on complex transmission cycles of diseases, identified new transmission forms of diseases that had long been among humans, and contributed to epidemiologic and environmental studies. The knowledge built has allowed an advancement in science and technology; it has also been of great importance for decision making in public health issues in countless situations.

The Pan-Amazonian Journal of Health, released on IECs anniversary, in 2010, crowns a history full of achievements in Science. This Journal focuses on investigations on biomedical sciences, environment, public health and medical anthropology, and its mission is to disseminate the vast intellectual production generated in the Pan-Amazonian Region.

This first issue provides extensive coverage of important - either modern or historical - subjects. History is preserved by the presentation of Dr. Evandro Chagas's saga in the Amazon, and Costa Lima and the campaign against yellow fever. Public health actions, endemic diseases and other potentially endemic illnesses are also discussed. Leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis, rabies, rotavirus, arbovirus, enteroinfections, tetravalent vaccines and surveillance of yellow fever are some examples that illustrate the thematic diversity the Journal brings out to the scientific community.

In a country characterized by great social inequality, which results in perverse regional differences, in imbalance between the needs of its populations and access to education, information and knowledge, the Journal will definitely be a very important step for the reduction of this inequality. It gives the opportunity for wider dissemination of Knowledge by researchers who faced the challenge of making the first scientific journal - in the Amazon - on the scientific fields covered by the Journal.

We are convinced that the Pan-Amazonian Journal of Health is necessary and more than appropriate, and that we provide the national and international academic and scientific communities, as well as the Brazilian society with a vehicle -which will also be published electronically and in three languages - that will fill a major gap in the scientific development of the Amazon region.

We are certain of its auspicious start and of the fulfillment of its mission!

As an Amazonian, as a researcher, as the Secretary of Health Surveillance, and, especially as an active character in regional and national public health discussion, I feel extremely honored to write this first editorial.