Medical genetics services in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil

The city of Sao Paulo is located in the center of a metropolitan area with nearly 18 million inhabitants and 300,000 births/year. The currently existing medical genetics services are unable to meet the demand, due to their insufficient physical and personnel infrastructure. Institutions and experts in medical genetics could give short training and refresher courses to health professionals to enable them to work in the public health network. The city has a reasonably well developed health care network, represented by the Single Health System (Sistema Unico de Saude - SUS) and by the Family Health Program (Programa de Saude da Familia - PSF). The financial resources for such actions originate in the budget of the managing agencies of such systems. The limitations of genetic services provided to the population of the city could be overcome in a short period of time by developing programs within the public health care network. The city has institutions, professionals and financial resources to make this project feasible. To that end, the competent authorities of the Sao Paulo State and City Secretariats of Health should take managerial responsibility for the genetic services in the city.