Despite progress in controlling infectious diseases and extending life expectancy, the countries of the Americas remain vulnerable to serious health threats, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, Director off the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) told representatives to the Organization of American States (OAS) during a presentation on April 16.
Washington, D.C., 16 April 2015 (PAHO/WHO) — Despite progress in controlling infectious diseases and extending life expectancy, the countries of the Americas remain vulnerable to serious health threats, Dr. Carissa F. Etienne, Director off the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) told representatives to the Organization of American States (OAS) during a presentation on April 16.
Appearing before the OAS General Committee to present her most recent annual report, Etienne said that the experience of Ebola reconfirms the importance of strong health systems and the need for increased funding and health sector reforms to achieve them. PAHO is a member of the inter-American system along with the OAS, in addition to serving as the Regional Office for the Americas of WHO.
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"Preventing a situation similar to what is happening in West Africa has to do with countries having strong health systems in place that are resilient and compliant with the International Health Regulations," said Etienne. "Ebola put a magnifying glass on our health systems and our region's ability to respond to infectious disease outbreaks."
Although no cases of Ebola have been reported in Latin America or the Caribbean, the possibility of an imported case cannot be discarded, Etienne said. For this reason, PAHO in recent months has sent expert preparedness missions to assess countries' policies, procedures and human resource capacity to detect any imported Ebola case early and to be able to take effective action to prevent or contain its spread.
The missions have found that very few countries are sufficiently prepared. Virtually all the region's health systems need to be strengthened through greater investments and through reforms based on the principles of universal access to health and universal health coverage.
"Health is at the core of our social and economic development and stability, our economies, and our prosperity," she said. "We also have seen that an epidemic can devastate countries with weak health systems."
In presenting her annual report, Etienne highlighted a number of recent health achievements in the Americas that were supported by PAHO/WHO's technical cooperation. These include major improvements in infant and child survival, reductions in infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, and sustained progress toward the elimination of neglected tropical diseases. In particular, the region has made impressive recent progress against onchocerciasis, also known as "river blindness"—in 2013, Colombia became the first country in the world to verify the elimination of onchocerciasis, followed by Ecuador in 2014.
The region continues to be a leader among middle-income regions in providing antiretroviral treatment (ART) for HIV, and has seen steady declines in the number of deaths from AIDS as well as new cases of HIV, including among babies born to mothers with HIV. The countries of the region have been working to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis, and recently Cuba became the world's first country to seek international validation of this achievement.
Etienne said that protecting these achievements remains important and will require continuing investments in these areas as well as in overall health system strengthening.
A clear sign that there is growing political will in the region to support such investments was the adoption in late 2014 by PAHO/WHO member countries of a historic regional Strategy for Universal Access to Health and Universal Health Coverage.
"I believe that universal health coverage is the single most powerful concept that public health offers for health and development," said Etienne, urging the OAS representatives to support the achievement of "what we call the 21st century expression of health for all."
