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The Republic of Panama has the second most unequally distributed wealth in Central America, has recently entered the list of countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and has one of the largest testing rate per inhabitant in the region and consequently the highest incidence rate of COVID-19, making it an ideal location to discuss potential scenarios for assessing epidemic preparedness, and to outline research opportunities in the Region of the Americas. We address two timely important questions: What are the unique risks of COVID-19 in Panama that could help other countries in the Region be better prepared? And what kind of scientific knowledge can Panama contribute to the regional and global study of COVID-19? This paper provides suggestions about how the research community could support local health authorities plan for different scenarios and decrease public anxiety. It also presents basic scientific opportunities about emerging pandemic pathogens towards promoting global health from the perspective of a middle income country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To determine the level of stability or change in topic areas published by public health journals in Latin America and the Caribbean, using Keywords: and co-word analysis, in order to support evidence-based research planning. Methods. Keywords: were extracted from papers indexed in Scopus® that were published by the Revista de Salud Pública (RSP; Colombia), the Salud Pública de México (SPM; Mexico), and the Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública (RPMESP; Peru) for three periods: 2005 - 2007, 2008 - 2010, and 2011 - 2013. Co-word analysis was used to examine keywords extracted. Textual information was analyzed using centrality measures (inbetweenness and closeness). The hypothesis of stability/change of thematic coverage was tested using the Spearman's rho correlation coefficient. VOSviewer was used to visualize the co-word maps. Results. A moderate level of change in thematic coverage was observed in 2005 - 2010, as evidenced by the correlation coefficients for two of the 3-year periods, 2005 - 2007 and 2008 - 2010: 0.545 for RSP and 0.593 for SPM. However, in 2008 - 2013, more keywords remained constant from one period to the next, given the size of the correlation coefficients for the last 3-year periods: 2008 -- 2010 and 2011 - 2013: 0.727 for RSP and 0.605 for SPM. Conclusion. The research hypothesis was partially accepted given that just two consecutive 3-year periods showed a statistically-significant degree of stability in thematic coverage in public health studies. In that sense, this study provides compelling evidence of the effectiveness of using a combined approach for examining the dynamics of thematic coverage: centrality measures for identifying the main keywords and visual inspection for detecting the structure of textual information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article considers a warning from a study titled "The New Geography of Science" that the U.S. and Europe could face intellectual marginalisation if they fail to seize opportunities offered by the research power of Latin American countries. Scheduled for release in July 2009, the study warned that established research power is still ignorant of the increasing strength of the Latin American power. According to Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge, the region's share of the world's scientific papers increased to 4.8 per cent in 2008.

Reports on the increase in science and engineering research papers in Latin America as of March 2005. Comparison of the increase in science and engineering researches in Brazil and Mexico; Increase in the number of citations referencing Latin American authors from 1998 to 2001.