PAHO Director to Visit Mexico, Belize and Honduras

Washington, D.C., August 29, 2005 (PAHO)—Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago is starting today an official four-day visit to Mexico where she will receive an honorary degree from the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City.

After her August 28-31 stay in Mexico, Roses will also visit neighboring Belize, and during the first week of September, the PAHO Director will make an official four-day visit to Honduras.

Roses left for Mexico City on Sunday, August 28, and this Monday she will meet with a number of high-ranking Mexican officials, including Mexican Secretary of Health, Dr. Julio Frenk, the General Manager of the National Center for Technological Excellence in Health (CENETEC), Ing. Adriana Velázquez, the Commissioner of Federal Commission Against Sanitary Risks (COFEPRIS), Lic. Ernesto Enríquez Rubio, and the General Directors of the commission.

During the afternoon, Roses visits the office of the representative of PAHO and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Mexico. That includes a meeting with Dr. Melanie de Boer.

That evening, Roses will be awarded an honorary degree by the Autonomous Metropolitan University in the Xochimilco section of Mexico City.

On Tuesday morning, Roses flies to Tuxtla Gutierrez, the state capital of Chiapas, where she will meet with the director of the Mexican-American Commission for the Eradication of the Cattle Screw-worm Fly, Dr. Rodríguez Heres, and the commission members.

That afternoon, the PAHO director meets with the state governor, Lic. Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía, Chiapas’ Secretary of Health, Dr. Angel René Estrada Arévalo, and with the state’s Coordinator for International Relations, M. Sc. Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein.

On Wednesday, August 31, Roses flies to the neighboring country of Belize after a stopover in Villahermosa, in the Mexican state of Tabasco.

In Belize that day she will meet with Prime Minister, Hon. Said Musa, and attend the opening session of meetings by the Institute for Nutrition of Central America and Panama (INCAP) and the Meeting of the Health Sector of Central America and the Dominican Republic (RESSCAD, for its initials in Spanish).

Thursday’s schedule includes a luncheon with ministers of health and the members of the diplomatic corps. The following day she meets with Belize’s Minister of Health, Labor and Defense, Vildo Martin, followed by a press conference with Ministers of Health. Later she meets for a caucus luncheon with the Ministers of Health of Central America and the Dominican Republic. Roses leaves Belize on Saturday after a meeting with the staff of PAHO’s Belize Country Office.

Roses arrives in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, the morning of September 4 for meetings that same day with local PAHO officials followed by a dinner with national professional consultants.

The following day, Roses meets with a number of high-ranking officials of the Honduran government including President Ricardo Maduro Joest, Foreign Minister Mario Alberto Fortín Midence, and the Honduran Health Minister, Merlin Fernández.

Later on September 5, Roses meets with the Japanese Ambassador to Honduras, Takashi Koezuka, and with United Nations officials. In the evening, she will attend an awards ceremony for PAHO officials.

The following day, the PAHO Director meets with a number of government officials and civil organizations active in the promotion of public health at the local and national level.

She returns to Washington, D.C., September 7 after a morning meeting in Tegucigalpa with Dr. Ricardo Zablah, Executive Director of the Honduran Social Security Institute.

PAHO was established in 1902 and is the world’s oldest public health organization. PAHO works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and the quality of life of people of the Americas. It serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization (WHO).

PAHO Member States today include all 35 countries in the Americas. France, the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland are Participating States. Portugal and Spain are Observer States, and Puerto Rico is an Associate Member.