Dr. Mirta Roses Elected New Director of Pan American Health Organization

Washington, September 25, 2002 (PAHO) - Dr. Mirta Roses was elected today as Director of the Pan American Health Organization, becoming the first woman and first Argentine to lead the world's oldest international health organization.

Elected in a secret ballot by ministers of health from all countries in the Americas, Dr. Roses will serve a five-year term as the Organization's ninth director, taking office February 1, 2003. She replaces Dr. George Alleyne of Barbados, who was elected Director in 1995.

In an address to the health ministers and PAHO staff upon being elected, she thanked the Government of Argentina for "its great efforts and sacrifices in advancing my candidacy." She said she dedicates her satisfaction at being elected to the people of Argentina "as a symbol of the beginning of the country's recuperation and rebirth."

Dr. Roses, who spoke in all four official languages of the Pan American Health Organization, said her vision has three components: unity and solidarity of all people in the continent in search of concrete goals, leadership and responsibility of governments to convoke all forces of society, and a new emphasis on equity.

"To achieve health for all we must focus on the health of the neediest," she told a cheering audience. "We must dedicate ourselves to those who have been forgotten so that they can gain the six years of life expectancy than the Region has gained on average."

Dr. Roses has worked in the Pan American Health Organization for 18 years, most recently serving as its assistant director, in charge of all technical cooperation programs in the countries as well as the Organization's Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief Coordination Program.

She has traveled widely throughout the countries of the Americas and is familiar with the health needs of each country, from small villages to large cities. She has worked closely in support of ministries of health in the fight against epidemics and diseases.

In her 30- year career in epidemiology and public health, she has been in charge of scientific programs as well as technical cooperation programs, and was successful in organizing responses to disasters that have affected the Americas.

Dr. Roses, 56, graduated as a physician and surgeon from the National University of Córdoba, specializing in the epidemiology of infectious diseases. She also holds a . Diploma in public health from the State University of Buenos Aires and in tropical medicine from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil.

She served as a professor at the National University of Cordoba and was a researcher at the University of Buenos Aires and in the National Program on Argentine Hemorrhagic Fever. She was an adviser on epidemiology to Argentina's national leprosy program and served as director of the National Institutes of Research.

In 1981 she was named assistant director of the Emergency Division of the Ministry of Health, and served as a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization in the fields of public health laboratories and epidemiology, based in Buenos Aires.

She entered international service as head of the Surveillance Unit in PAHO's Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC) in Trinidad and Tobago. She then transferred to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as epidemiologist in the PAHO/WHO country office there.

From 1988 to 1992 she served as the PAHO/WHO Representative in the Dominican Republic, and was named PAHO/WHO Representative to Bolivia in 1992. In 1995 she was named assistant director of PAHO, the first woman to serve in that post.

She was also a member of the Global Program Management Group of the World Health Organization (WHO) and served as its chairperson for two terms.

She had the responsibility of orienting and supervising the technical cooperation programs of PAHO with all the Member States, to promote this cooperation and to support and coordinate actions with regional integration processes and institutions.

Dr. Roses said, "We can look ahead with optimism" because of the potential of existing human and financial resources. "We know how to convince and argue for the health of the poor and for those who have no voice, to mobilize support and financial resources needed."

For more information, b-roll and photographs please contact: Daniel Epstein, Office of Public Information, (202) 974-3459, e-mail: epsteind@paho.org.