By: Staff Writer
September 30, 2022
The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) director said that the community effort during the COVID-19 pandemic helped to “redefine” the public health system across the region as she touts major achievements under trying circumstances over the past 24 months.
Dr Carissa Etienne said at the Pan-American Sanitary Conference that without the tireless efforts of the many community healthcare brigades across the region a lot of people would not have been able to receive assistance during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She also said: “Many countries in this region embraced the whole of society approach that has not only redefined public health, but has placed health at the very centre of political agendas.
“Presidents and Prime Ministers have become directly involved. Indeed, during the COVID 19 pandemic, the world recognized just how central health is to our societies until economies and countries were forced to innovate and to work across sectors to protect their people and strengthen their responses.”
This community effort approach will bode well for public health care professionals moving forward, while COVID-19 is a rare pandemic, healthcare workers were facing other challenges while they were fighting the deadly pandemic. In fact, non-communicable diseases didn’t go away when COVID-19 emerged and neither did other forms of critical care disappear when the world was struggling with COVID-19 containment.
Dr Etienne said: “Though we were under-resourced at the time of the pandemic, PAHO was still working hand in hand with every country and territory in this region, providing essential guidance and technical information, expanding capacity, and providing tests, drugs, oxygen, and of course, hundreds of millions of vaccines.
She continued, “But COVID isn’t the only infectious disease that we’ve been forced to reckon with in the last 10 years. In fact, over the last decade, we’ve made remarkable strides against preventable diseases and that’s thanks to the collaboration of our member states. Our region has been able to eliminate measles rubella and… tetanus 10 Caribbean islands have ended child transmission of HIV and syphilis. Chagas disease has been eliminated in four countries throughout our region and malaria in four others, that is over 10 years.”
With regard to non-communicable disease efforts, she noted that 15 countries have imposed taxes on sugary beverages, “and nine countries have introduced nutrition and front of package labelling, and many others have improved the school based meals as our children can enjoy the nutrition that they need to grow.