40 anos de Alma-Ata: desafios da Atenção Primária à Saúde no Brasil e no mundo

Abstract

, has just turned 40 years old. It expressed, back in 1978, the "need for urgent action by all governments, all those working in the fields of health and development, and the world community to promote the health of all people of the world". The so-called "Alma-Ata Declaration" 1 emphasizes Primary Health Care (PHC), stressing the need for special focus in developing countries, reaffirmed at the Astana Conference 2. The organizers of this thematic issue are proud that in the year that celebrates the 25 th anniversary of the Ciência & Saúde Coletiva Journal-the leading Brazilian Public Health Journal according to the Google Metrics index for Portuguese-language publications-focusses its discussion on the Family Health Strategy and expands the discussion to include Community and Family Medicine (CFM). The intention is to discuss the fundamental importance of primary care, in the Americas and Ibero-American regions, and to underline how primary care plays a critical role at the intersection of clinical medicine and public health. This issue contains 23 articles on the topic, written by about 80 authors from nine countries (Brazil,