The challenges of estimations: a Southern world view

Recent prioritization of big data a mix of real and modeled information, has allowed the production of global epidemiologic estimates, but at the same time this has corresponded to a loss of country-specific epidemiological profiles. This lack of national data threaten tailored public health policies and impose a global agenda on what the priorities and interventions in public health should be. The case of premature death in Latin America and under-five mortality in Africa, reveal the reliance of epidemiology on complex mathematical models that estimates what is supposed to be happening. However these models uses available data that are limited to those persons who are easiest-to-reach but not those in greatest need.