Health issues now evolve in a global context. Real-time global surveillance, global disease mapping and global risk management characterize what have been termed 'global public health'. It has generated many programmes and policies, notably through the work of the World Health Organization. This globalized form of public health raises, however, some important issues left unchallenged, including its effectiveness, objectivity and legitimacy. The general objective of this article is to underline the impacts of WHO disease surveillance on the practice and theorization of global public health. By using the surveillance structure established by the World Health Organization and reinforced by the 2005 International Health Regulations as a case study, we argue that the policing of 'circulating risks' emerged as a dramatic paradox for global public health policy. This situation severely affects the rationale of health interventions as well as the lives of millions around the world, while travestying the meaning of health, disease and risks. To do so, we use health surveillance data collected by the WHO Disease Outbreak News System in order to map the impacts of global health surveillance on health policy rationale and theory.

Following recent health crises-mad cow, SARS, H1N1-, countries and subnational entities refined their policy infrastructure to better respond to outbreaks, leading to pandemic emergency plans. These plans, which are the result of complex public policymaking processes, were translated into public policies during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to important policy issues and changes. Were these plans applied as planned? How did they evolve, as a policy object, during the pandemic? How do they compare among national/subnational entities? This paper proposes a comparative analysis of the existing plans, their temporal mobilization during the first 3 weeks of the pandemic, the policies they led to, and their successive revisions within a short period of time. Our analysis problematizes the translation process between policy and practice, bringing new light to the policymaking process under emergency and crisis. Informed by policy learning research and using a qualitative content analysis of existing COVID-19 pandemic plans in the three largest and most affected Canadian provinces (Qu ebec, Ontario, and British Columbia), this article provides not only a better understanding of real-time policy making but also crisis-induced policy learning at the organizational level.

Family medicine has not received appropriate attention in the sub-Saharan African context. In particular, family medicine is rarely recognised as a medical speciality and most African countries are silent on the role of family medicine in their health systems. There is, however, an emerging interest in developing family medicine as a key component of primary healthcare. Postgraduate training in family medicine is progressing and many countries have already established specific training programmes. In addition, there have been attempts to define the importance of family medicine, which, we expect, this short report contributes to. Interviews were conducted with physicians, partners and beneficiaries of two international development projects funded by the Canadian government. The one project supports training of health professionals and the other education of healthy women and girls in the community. The objective was to document the strengthening of primary healthcare through the creation and adaptation of a new family and community medicine postgraduate medical programme (which includes both family and community medicine) emphasising field training, immersion in local communities and interdisciplinary collaboration. This article underlines the importance of family medicine in Mali by documenting how what is now termed family and community medicine can promote community-orientated health services. To do so, we use the examples of initiatives and actions done through two international health development projects.

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