International health in transition.

The need for a transition towards a new concept of international health is emphasized and a paradigm for making the transition is proposed. The challenge of building a vigorous intellectual and academic tradition of international health which supports its efforts to generate knowledge and leads to its practical application is recognized and addressed. It is argued that the development of such an intellectual field is based on four elements: conceptual base, production base, reproduction base, and utilization base. The Unit for International Studies in Public Health (UISPH) of Mexico is presented as one example of efforts to consolidate an academic tradition in this field.