Please find here the latest daily updates of the PAHO Region
Una guía para prevenir y abordar el estigma social
Social stigma in the context of health is the negative association between a person or group of people who share certain characteristics and a specific disease. In an outbreak, this may mean people are labelled, stereotyped, discriminated against,... treated separately, and/or experience loss of status because of a perceived link with a disease.
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En esta publicación se presenta un marco para implementar la Agenda para las Américas sobre salud, medioambiente y cambio climático 2021-2030, que se estructura en torno a las funciones esenciales de la salud pública centradas en los determinantes ambientales de la salud. La Agenda es un llamami...ento al sector de la salud para que lidere la labor a fin de abordar los determinantes ambientales de la salud en la Región de las Américas. La Organización Panamericana de la Salud (OPS) colaborará con los Estados Miembros para alcanzar su meta y objetivo de garantizar una vida saludable y promover el bienestar para todos en todas las edades, utilizando un enfoque sostenible y equitativo que priorice la reducción de la inequidad en la salud.
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Herd immunity by mass vaccination offers the potential to substantially limit the continuing spread of COVID-19, but high levels of vaccine hesitancy threaten this goal. In a cross-country analysis of vaccine hesitant respondents across Latin America in January 2021, we experimentally tested how fiv...e features of mass vaccination campaigns—the vaccine’s producer, efficacy, endorser, distributor, and current population uptake rate—shifted willingness to take a COVID-19 vaccine. We find that citizens preferred Western-produced vaccines, but were highly influenced by factual information about vaccine efficacy. Vaccine hesitant individuals were more responsive to vaccine messengers with medical expertise than political, religious, or media elite endorsements. Citizen trust in foreign governments, domestic leaders, and state institutions moderated the effects of the campaign features on vaccine acceptance. These findings can help inform the design of unfolding mass inoculation campaigns.
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The Epidemiological Alerts are released in order to provide information about the occurrence of international public health events which have implications or could have implications for the countries and territories of the Americas; as well as recommendations issued by the Pan American Health Organi...zation.
The Epidemiological Updates are released as new information becomes available regarding events previously shared through Epidemiological Alerts.
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Want to build a tippy tap? Want to teach someone else how to? Here is a graphical manual that works for both literate and illiterate populations. Spanish version
Accessed 13 January 2015
Chagas disease affects approximately 6 million people, mainly in Latin America. Less than 1% of affected individuals receive proper antiparasitic treatment, and current drugs are inadequate to fight the entire spectrum of the disease. Against this background, Novartis is pursuing an end-to-end appro...ach, with activity on three fronts: drug discovery, clinical research and health system strengthening.
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Junio 2020.Este documento describe las intervenciones de salud mental y apoyo psicosocial (SMAPS) fundamentales que se recomienda desarrollar de manera intersectorial en los países y en las comunidades. Para ello se propone utilizar como marco de referencia la pirámide de intervenciones para los s...ervicios de SMAPS del Comité Permanente entre Organismos (IASC).
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Worldwide, studies on asthma prevalence have shown major rises over the last 30 years. The impact on the burden of asthma is being increasingly recognised. In some countries in Latin America, the prevalence of asthma is among the highest in the world. Asthma admissions are very common in children, l...eading to high costs for the health systems of those countries. Unfortunately, Latin America has limited resources to pay for appropriate treatment. The main goals of the international guidelines for asthma treatment are not being met. However, asthma programmes operating in some countries are showing promising results in reducing asthma admissions and consequently decreasing the burden of asthma. Local adaptation of international guidelines must be implemented in order to decrease costs and optimise outcomes.
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Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) represents a major global threat across human, animal, plant food and environmental sectors, threatening the effective treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections caused by bacteria, parasites, viruses and fungi, resulting in prolonged illness and increased mor...tality, often felt hardest by the most vulnerable populations. AMR also endangers the sustainability of agri-food systems and food safety.
Since 2010 there is a strong commitment from FAO, OIE and PAHO to fight AMR, working together to mitigate the risks in the interconnection among the human health, animal health and the environment. In this context, the organizations now joined forces in the implementation of the project ‘Working Together to Fight Antimicrobial Resistance’ to ensure a coherent “One Health” approach recognizing the multidimensionality and necessity of an intersectoral response that is needed to address the problem of AMR.
The overall strategic objective of the three-year project (2020-22) supported and financed by the European Union (EU) is to contribute to tackle AMR through the implementation of National AMR Action Plans by working with seven Latin American partner countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.
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Fotonovela to promote COVID-19 vaccination. This comic-book style graphic tells the story of a daycare worker’s decision to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
This publication presents a framework to implement the Agenda for the Americas on Health, Environment, and Climate Change 2021–2030 (the Agenda) that is structured around essential public health functions focused on environmental determinants of health. The Agenda is a call to action to the health... sector to lead the charge to address environmental determinants of health in the Americas. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) will work with Member States to achieve its goal and objective to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages using a sustainable and equitable approach that places a priority on reducing health inequity. The Agenda was developed under the umbrella of the WHO Global Strategy on Health, Environment, and Climate Change, and builds upon the commitments set forth in the Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018–2030 and the PAHO Strategic Plan 2020–2025.
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Research and Reports in Tropical Medicine 2021:12 63–76 . This review focusses on the interactions between the etiologic agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, and its triatomine vector.
La salud mental es de vital importancia para todas las personas, en todas partes. En todo el mundo, las necesidades en materia de salud mental son muchas, pero la respuesta es insuficiente e inadecuada. El Informe mundial sobre la salud mental: Transformar la salud mental para todos ha sido concebid...o para inspirar y fundamentar una mejor salud mental para todas las personas. Al basarse en los datos disponibles más recientes, mostrar ejemplos de buenas prácticas en todo el mundo y transmitir la experiencia de las propias personas, en este informe se pone de relieve por qué es necesario el cambio y dónde, y cuál es la mejor manera de lograrlo. En el informe se insta a todas las partes interesadas a que colaboren para profundizar en el compromiso y el valor que se atribuye a la salud mental, reconfigurar los entornos que influyen en la salud mental y fortalecer los sistemas de atención de la salud mental. La salud mental es mucho más que la ausencia de enfermedad: es una parte intrínseca de nuestra salud y bienestar individual y colectivo. Como se muestra en el presente Informe mundial sobre la salud mental, para alcanzar los objetivos mundiales establecidos en el Plan de acción integral sobre salud mental 2013‑2030 de la OMS y los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible debemos transformar nuestras actitudes, acciones y enfoques para promover y proteger la salud mental, así como para proporcionar cuidados y atención a quienes lo necesitan.
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Chagas disease, or American trypanosomiasis, is a condition that causes gradual organ damage. Without treatment, it can be fatal.
This article explains where the T. cruzi parasite is most common and how it can spread. It also outlines the symptoms of Chagas disease and the treatment options avail...able.
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Sequencing SARS-CoV-2 in the Americas
The COVID-19 Genomic Surveillance Regional Network was created in 2020 not only to strengthen the sequencing capacity in the participating laboratories, but also for them to establish a routine SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequencing, as a strategy to increase the amoun...t of genetic sequence data available to the global community, which is critical to support the development of diagnostic protocols, the information for vaccine development and to better understand the evolution and molecular epidemiology of the SARS-CoV-2.
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