By Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)
Last September, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) gave new impetus to an initiative to eliminate 30 communicable diseases and related conditions from the region of the Americas.
Many are known foes, such as TB, HIV, and cervical cancer, but several are neglected diseases that affect vulnerable, marginalized or inaccessible communities. These diseases are mostly preventable, always treatable, and yet continue to plague millions.
Malaria, for example, is an illness that hides in the most difficult to access corners of the Americas. The disease is emblematic to many ailments under the PAHO initiative: a ramification of poverty and social inequity, disproportionally impacting communities far away from health services.
