CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

The border?s relationship between Argentina and Paraguay dates back to colonial times when the boundary between the jurisdictions of the cities of Asuncion and Buenos Aires wasn?t established yet. The extensive shared border along the 1,700 kilometers of international river boundary gather, according to the latest national census, about 5,000,000 inhabitants, distributed 64% of the Paraguayan side and 36% on the Argentinean side , and refers to approximately 1,200,000 households in both countries. The border, taken as a region, has geographical realities of great heterogeneity; densely populated areas, facing cities, rural areas, areas of varying mobility, but overall this is a territory characterized by a high exchange at the commercial, cultural, demographic and services level. The activities and general and sectoral policies of each country affect the other territory and, in turn, the dynamics that generates the condition of boundary, sieve the respective national approaches and requires particularized decisions and attitudes towards the border. For this reason, this proposal seeks to emphasize the need for a "regionalization" of the political and administrative treatment of the health problem. In health, the border has a strong history of international cooperation that has increased in recent years as a result of the occurrence of emerging and reemerging diseases such as cholera, yellow fever, dengue and the increase in tuberculosis. This paper aims to analyze state policies and agreements established between the two countries in relation to health care, particularly those specific related to the border and those signed between provincial / departmental jurisdictions. It also seeks to assess local practices, even though they not conform to the existing legislation.