PAHO gets $2.57 million grant to fight diseases in the Americas

The PAHO Foundation today announced a three-year $2.57 million grant to the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to further its work in the surveillance, prevention, education and control of priority infectious diseases, and women’s cancers.
“The burden of disease can be greatly reduced if Latin American and the Caribbean countries strengthen the capacities of their health delivery systems to prevent, detect and respond early to communicable and non-communicable diseases,” said Dr. Jennie Ward-Robinson, President and CEO of PAHO Foundation. “Our grant to PAHO will help transform surveillance, prevention and control of some of the most important diseases that plague communities across the region. By boldly addressing these health issues head on, we can save lives, and help build more resilient communities.”
The new grant is the Foundation’s first to PAHO in 2015 and will expand the capacity of the world’s oldest international public health agency to collect, analyze and share real-time data on infectious diseases, especially meningococcal disease, influenza and dengue. Meningococcal disease affects mainly children and adolescents and can kill up to 50% of cases if left untreated. Dengue incidence in the Americas has increased 30 times over the past 50 years, and more than 1.1 million cases were reported in the region in 2014.
The grant will also build much needed awareness on prevention and screening for breast and cervical cancers, the most common women’s cancers in Latin America and the Caribbean. They claim an estimated 120,000 women’s lives each year and result in more than 400,000 newly diagnosed cases annually. According to PAHO/WHO experts, access to quality cancer screening programs for early diagnosis and improvements in cancer education, treatment and care can significantly reduce unnecessary deaths from these diseases.
The grant will support public education efforts on breast and cervical cancers through the mass media and community-based health promotion. Primary health care providers will benefit from health counselling materials, and stakeholder workshops will focus on evidenced-based “screen and treat” strategies for HPV (human papilloma virus) which causes cervical cancer.
“We are grateful to PAHO Foundation for this significant grant which will enable us to continue the critical work of tracking and containing communicable infectious diseases and preventing and treating non-communicable diseases that affect people throughout the Americas,” said PAHO Director Carissa F. Etienne. “Better prevention and control of both types of diseases will save lives and improve quality of life, especially among our region’s most vulnerable groups.” (Source PAHO)

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