Panama City, March 17, 2023 (PAHO) – In his really initially nation spend a go to to offered that taking workplace, the Director of the Pan American Wellness Organization (PAHO), Jarbas Barbosa, met with the President of Republic of Panama, Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, and other national authorities to advance wellness priorities of regional significance.
In the course of the meeting, President Cortizo Cohen and the PAHO Director discussed the call for to strengthen regional manufacturing capacities for medicines and wellness technologies, the digital transformation of wellness systems and actions to mitigate the wellness influence of climate alter, amongst other subjects.
“Panama is a vital PAHO Member State and strategic companion for the region,” Dr. Barbosa stated, highlighting the country’s leadership in the fight against non-communicable illness (NCDs). “Panama’s policies to decrease tobacco, implement the HEARTS initiative for the management of cardiovascular illnesses and efforts to enhance front-package labeling can serve as an instance to other nations,” the Director stated.
President Cortizo Cohen thanked the PAHO Director for the “excellent relationship” amongst Panama and PAHO and commended the Organization’s really vital help to the nation all through the COVID-19 pandemic. He also highlighted PAHO’s help in the digital transformation of Panama’s wellness system and underscored Panama’s strategic and logistical capacities for the distribution and feasible future production of medicines in the region.
In the course of the meeting, the President and the Director also discussed vital lessons from the pandemic, which brought to the fore the call for for added equitable access to wellness supplies, medicines and vaccines amongst nations.
The PAHO Director emphasized the significance of active regional participation in the International Negotiating Physique (INB) for the new pandemic instrument, which will be location forward for adoption by Globe Wellness Organization (WHO) Member States in 2024. “We have a exclusive window of possibility to include equitable access into an international agreement,” Dr. Barbosa stated. “If we do not use it, we could be in the identical devastating circumstance in the subsequent wellness emergency, specifically exactly where sector recommendations avert access to life-saving vaccines to smaller sized sized or substantially much less economically helpful nations.”
In the course of his spend a go to to to Panama, Dr. Barbosa also met with other national authorities and partners. On Thursday, he met with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Franco, specifically exactly where they discussed help to the wellness of migrants, amongst other subjects.
The PAHO Director also met with Dr. Luis Francisco Sucre, Panama’s Minister of Wellness, to go more than subjects such as advancing telehealth, strengthening important care to also cover NCD’s, and response to infectious illness outbreaks, such as malaria. “PAHO will continue to function closely with Panama to advance these locations,” Dr. Barbosa stated.
The PAHO Director visited the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory (Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud – ICGES), specifically exactly where he met Director Juan Miguel Pascale. He thanked him for the institute’s enable to Central American nations in tracking COVID-19 variants all through the pandemic, adding that the hopes to strengthen collaboration to strengthen regional surveillance capacity for other pathogens and antimicrobial resistance.
Dr. Barbosa’s spend a go to to also integrated discussions with the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Panama, Ana Patricia Graça, and with representatives of several UN agencies with which PAHO collaborates closely on the ground, such as UNAIDS, FAO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and OCHA. “Health is vital to improvement,” the Director stated, underscoring that PAHO will continue operating with UN partners to “seek revolutionary selections to decrease inequalities and advance the Sustainable Improvement Goal.”
Panama became a PAHO Member State in 1947, and shortly following signed a cooperation agreement for technical enable to help national public wellness projects.
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