The First International Conference of American States, held in Washington, D.C., from 2 October 1889 to 19 April 1890, provided a major impetus for Pan Americanism. During the session of 7 December 1889, the delegates approved the creation of a Tenth Committee, composed of seven members from five countries (Brazil, Nicaragua, Peru, the United States, and Venezuela), to consider and report on the new methods of establishing and maintaining health regulations in trade between the various countries represented at the Conference. The Tenth Committee recommended, and the Conference endorsed the recommendation, that the American republics adopt the International Sanitary Convention of Rio de Janeiro (1887) or the text of the Sanitary Convention from the Lima Congress (1888).
