Health : Guatemala

This pathfinder includes information about health in Guatemala. The major online source of health information are the databases of the World Health Organization, and with regard to Latin American and the Caribbean that source is the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Washington, D.C. PAHO is an international public health agency working to improve health and living standards of the countries of the Americas. They provide a variety of databases such as the Health library for disasters; the Adolescent Health database; and the Pan American Center for Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Sciences.Researchers may also wish to consult the National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health sites.

GUATEMALA: BASIC COUNTRY HEALTH PROFILES, SUMMARIES 2001  (http://www.paho.org/english/sha/prflgut.htm)
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) offers a country profile of Guatemala. This profile was released in 1999, and features a socioeconomic, political, and demographic overview of the country that includes pertinent statistics. PAHO also provides information concerning health issues for various population groups, diseases and other health-related problems, and health care services in Guatemala. PAHO notes that the information is a summary of a chapter from "Health in the Americas 1998," and offers access to the entire chapter in PDF format.

MEDLINE PLUS  (http://purl.access.gpo.gov/GPO/LPS34458)
Presents up-to-date health care information, selected by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, for use by health care consumers and health professionals. Hundreds of health topics are listed alphabetically and are also grouped into 32 groups. PubMed database searches, with the search queries already formulated, can be initiated from any of the health topics in order to search for more information. Web links are also provided to dictionaries, sites about doctors and dentists, hospitals, organizations, clearinghouses, databases, consumer health publications (some written in Spanish), and libraries. Website was launched by NLM on October 22, 1998.

MINISTERIO DE SALUD PUBLICA  (http://www.mspas.gob.gt/)
This site features the Ministry of Health in Guatemala. It provides information about its organization, its finnance, its services, its National Health Plan, and so on. In Spanish.

PROVIDING MEDICAL SERVICES TO RURAL GUATEMALA  (http://gfmmf.org)
This site provides informaiton about The Glen Falls Medical Missionary Foundation, which is a non-profit organization formed to provide services to a medically under-served area of Guatemala. It provides access to other volunteer medical organizations.

PUBLIC HEALTH IN GUATEMALA  (http://www.ldb.org/vl/geo/america/2gua.htm)
This site provides a comprenhensive list of links to resources on public health in Guatemala. It is organized by different categories, such as Governmental links; National Public Health Associations;Miscellaneous; and so on.