preface

The Asklepion - Health Information journal is completing two years and we are publishing number 2 of its second volume. The magazine is a publication of the research group Information in Science, Technology and Innovation in Health, of IBICT - Brazilian Institute of Information in Science and Technology.

This publication happens when "It's already a new day!", as the Minister of Health Nisia Trindade said at the opening of the 17th. National Health Conference in early July. The Unified Health System - SUS was one of the great victims of four years of authoritarian and obscure government. The more than 700,000 deaths are a direct result of government actions and omissions during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Asklepion magazine wants to be tuned and tune its authors, collaborators and readers with this "new day", when public policies seek the reorganization of the Brazilian State and the reconstruction of the Unified Health System, with the Ministry of Health returning to occupy its position of coordinator of actions and public health services at the national level.

The federal government's effort to recover the optimal levels of coverage of the national immunization program is an example of the new difficulties for the reconstruction of the SUS. Vaccination coverage levels of the public program created in the 1970s were excellent, particularly among children. The eradication of poliomyelitis and the reduction in the incidence of vaccine-preventable diseases are the result of this excellence.

However, systematic far-right campaigns against mandatory vaccination in recent years have resulted in falling coverage levels. This was particularly acute during the Covid-19 pandemic, which required a vigorous population-wide vaccination response. The obscure government does incredible sabotage against vaccination, from the delay in purchasing immunizers to informational terrorism about the risks of its use.

Talking about campaigns against vaccination is particularly pertinent because they are part of a serious problem in contemporary societies: the waves of misinformation on the Internet and social networks. Disseminating fraudulent news is part of the political strategy to keep extreme right groups mobilized.

It is in this context that the work of Asklepion magazine, focused on Health Information, stands out. Working on the recording and dissemination of Information on Science, Technology and Innovation in Health has become critical to the defense against the barbarism of global warming, pandemics and hunger. We are working permanently in this direction.

In this issue of the magazine, we would like to highlight the article that opens the issue: Yanomani Mission: an epic in the Amazon jungle, written by the Rio Grande do Sul physician Ronal. The Yanomani mission was the Lula government's response to the situation of this population in poverty, hunger and illness. These indigenous people were victims of the genocide orchestrated by the far-right government.

The popular doctor Ronald Selle Wolff describes his epic among the indigenous people in the first person, rescuing the human dimension that had been lost with the disastrous combination of gold mining, predatory fishing, extraction of native wood. The so-called native peoples have a lot to teach Brazilians with their resistance to survive.

The other articles make up a very rich panel of a small part of what has been produced in terms of Health Information, in research institutes, universities and health organizations. Most of the articles we are publishing refer to investigations and experiences in the Unified Health System - SUS.

We would like to conclude this presentation by inviting authors, collaborators and readers: we need to talk, share experiences and learn from each other. The articulation of those interested in Health Information has become necessary to provide scientifically based answers to the challenges of the 21st century, including the guarantee of health for all.

Rio de Janeiro, Jule 09, 2023

Clovis Ricardo Montenegro de Lima

Publisher