Public Health Governance: conflicts and challenges of shared management on the Brazil-Bolivia border

Abstract

This case study aims to present the importance of shared public health management for border areas. Specifically, we will present how the initial confrontation of covid-19 took place on the Brazil-Bolivia border, to demonstrate the territorial weaknesses, both regarding covid-19 and in the face of other infectious diseases. Of methodological order, this article proposes a new theoretical-analytical reading for the study of public health governance, based on the pragmatist sociology of public problems. By an investigation (qualitative and theoretical-reflective), carried out with a bibliographic and documental survey and a consultation with 14 specialists, the controversies and the conflicts that define the problem and the action to try to solve it were identified. covid-19 rekindles the importance of shared binational management, both to fight the pandemic and to control other urgent local endemics, such as dengue and H1N1 on the border.