A public health nurse makes home visits in Asunción, Paraguay, in 1952. In the mid-1950s, PAHO adopted a long-term plan for training health workers in the Region and placed new emphasis on preventive and social medicine.

PAHO's new, modern headquarters was designed by Uruguayan architect Román Fresnedo Siri and built with financing from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation on land donated by the U.S. government. The Organization moved to the building in 1965.

Dr. Abraham Horowitz (1911-2000), of Chile, was PAHO's first Latin America director, serving from 1959 to 1975. His tenure spanned a time of social and political upheaval in the Americas, but also one of growth in PAHO's influence and activities, and progress in health and development throughout the Region.

Professors and students of a course on leptospirosis at the Pan American Zoonoses Center (CEPANZO) in Azul, Argentina, in 1961. For 35 years, CEPANZO conducted training and research on diseases that can be passed between animals and humans.

A nursing instructor provides training to nurses' aides at Guatemala City's General Hospital in the mid-1960s. PAHO's work in this decade focused heavily on improving the Region's health services through training and education of health personnel.

Residents of Baranquilla, Colombia, listen as a health worker discusses a new antismallpox campaign in 1962. With PAHO support, member countries stepped up their vaccination efforts, and the Region succeeded in eradicating the disease by 1973.

A member of a joint field mission discusses a community problem with indigenous farmers in Peru in the 1970s. PAHO teamed up with organizations including de International Labour Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and UNESCO to promote development of indigenous communities in the Andean region.