Hemisphere's Health Authorities to Gather at PAHO
Washington, D.C., — Among the top agenda items is the election of PAHO's director, which takes place every five years at the Pan American Sanitary Conference (in intervening years, the ministers meet as the PAHO Directing Council).
The following are some of the major topics on the conference's agenda:
Rubella and congenital rubella syndrome: As the PAHO region enters the final stages of rubella elimination, the major challenge is to maintain vaccine coverage at over 95 percent, an achievement that has led to a 98 percent decline in rubella cases since 1998. Health leaders will discuss the creation of an international expert committee to verify-through site visits, review of documentation, and data analysis-that endemic rubella virus transmission has been interrupted in the Western Hemisphere. Dr Margarita Cedeño de Fernández, First Lady of the Dominican Republic, is scheduled to attend this session Monday and be honored for her work in promoting rubella elimination.
Avian and pandemic influenza: Although H5N1 continues to be an avian virus, the possibility that it could mutate into a human pathogen has led to efforts to strengthen monitoring and alert systems and to prepare the health sector for a possible influenza pandemic. Health leaders will review PAHO's progress in providing technical cooperation in this area and will consider how best to support these efforts.
Malaria: PAHO member countries are committed to reducing the burden of malaria by 50 percent by the year 2010 and by 75 percent by 2015 (903,931 cases were reported in 2006, down 21 percent since 2000). The conference will discuss efforts to strengthen health surveillance and monitoring in the face of challenges such as migration, tourism, and poor access to health services, all of which jeopardize control efforts. Participants will also discuss a date for launching the first Malaria Day in the Americas, aimed at raising awareness of the disease.
Human resources for health: The region faces a double challenge: on the one hand, ensuring a competent, motivated, and culturally appropriate workforce-nearly three out of four countries in the Americas have suffered a net loss of health personnel through emigration-and on the other hand, bridging the gap between urban and rural areas in terms of the availability of human resources for health.
International health security: Health authorities will examine the responsibilities and benefits assigned to countries and the World Health Organization/PAHO by the new International Health Regulations, which formally went into effect in June of this year. The regulations provide a legal framework for collective action toward the prevention and control of outbreaks and other public health risks of international concern, including chemical and radiological events.
Safe hospitals: According to a 2006 PAHO survey, more than two-thirds of health establishments in PAHO member countries are located in disaster zones. The ministers will discuss the 2008-09 global Safe Hospitals campaign, which seeks to raise awareness of the need to ensure that hospitals continue to function after a natural disaster. The campaign is part of the United Nations' International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.
Millennium Development Goals: PAHO's Faces, Voices, and Places initiative seeks to advance the MDGs by working at the local level with the region's most vulnerable communities. Health leaders will discuss how the initiative can help countries close the equity gap through coordinated action involving different agencies and sectors, and by emphasizing primary health care and health promotion in development work.
Dengue: With some 3.5 million cases of dengue recorded between 2001 and 2006, this disease remains a major public health problem in the Americas. Population growth, migration, international travel and tourism are among the factors favoring it spread, as is the abundance of discarded tires in the environment. The ministers will discuss ways to strengthen efforts to fight dengue throughout the hemisphere.
Quality of care and patient safety: Health leaders will examine a proposal for a regional strategy to improve quality of health care and patient safety over the next decade. The proposal includes the creation of a regional observatory for quality of care and patient safety, involving the national-level health authorities, academicians, and representatives of international cooperation agencies and nongovernmental organizations.
Vital and health statistics: The availability of reliable data is crucial to health policy making and for monitoring progress in health. On the basis of a 2006 PAHO survey revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the region's information systems, delegates to the Pan American Sanitary Conference will consider a strategy for improving the quality of data and indicators in the region's health information systems and for expanding their coverage.
Conference details: The conference starts at 9 am Monday, Oct. 1, with a welcome on behalf of the host country by Secretary of Health and Human Services, Hon. Mike Leavitt and remarks by the National Coordinator and Special Envoy to the Americas, V Summit of the Americas, Ambassador Luis Alberto Rodríguez and by the UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mr. Nils Kastberg. The Secretary General of the Organization of American States, Dr. José Miguel Insulza, and the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Margaret Chan, are also addressing the opening session of the conference.
Also scheduled for release the first day of the conference is the two-volume Health in the Americas publication and the Quinquennial Report of PAHO Director Dr. Mirta Roses. [PAHO/WHO Press Release]
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