RETS - Rede Internacional de Educação de Técnicos em Saúde

In early 2010, two earthquakes of large magnitude hit countries in the Region. On January 12, a quake of just over 7.0 on the Richter scale practically destroyed the Haitian capital – Port au Prince – and the surrounding cities, killing over 220,000 people, displacing nearly 1.5 million residents and razing the already troubled health system. Forty-five days later, on February 27, it was Chile´s turn. Hit by a tremor of 8.8 degrees, the country accounted for slightly more than 500 deaths. The temporal proximity of the two events, whose consequences were completely different, was the starting point for a large international reflection on the importance of building well-structured and physically safe national health systems.

 “International Cooperation in rebuilding Haiti’s health system and the importance that the training of health technical workers is having that process” – that is the focus of issue No. 7 of the RETS Magazine, whose cover story also addresses the issues of Safe Hospitals and of timely and reliable information in times of crisis, in addition to showing the important work that Via Campesina is carrying out in Haiti.

 In the “Glossary” section, the discussion is about “Health Surveillance” and how this concept is being consolidated in many countries. What changes does this bring to health systems and to what extent it defines new professional profiles? How should we consider training workers for the area?

The magazine also introduces the first of a series of texts that seek to bring to the RETS issues discussed at the Online Forum on Health Technicians – “Midlevel Health Workers” – conducted by the Global Health Workforce Alliance (GHWA) in May this year.

 The news is the creation of RETS Twitter (@ rets_epsjv) – announced in the “Network News” – and the launching of the “Dear Editor” section in the magazine, where some of the messages we receive will be published. The purpose of both initiatives is to increase the channels of interactivity with our readers in order to improve our performance and provide a service that is increasingly adjusted to RETS’ mission and goals.

Happy reading!

RETS Executive Secretariat