[Current status of public health education in Central America and Panama]

The document relates the efforts made in the Central American countries over the last two decades to develop public health education programs in light of the demands of the Governments' health programs, including the proposal to set up a subregional public health school in one of these countries. They indicate the various activities carried out in this field, including the public health course given each year in CAP, with emphasis on nutrition and maternal and child care; the health administration course recently begun in Nicaragua to train hospital management teams, and the public health course for doctors in social service planned in 1981 by the Ministry of Health of Costa Rica and the support of the Community Health Training Program of Central America and Panama (PASCCAP). A description is given of the course model prepared by PASCCAP to train personnel for primary health care in light of the strategies adopted by the countries to achieve the goal of health for all by the year 2000. Two courses have already been given using the model, and two more will be offered in 1982.