PAHO supports project to improve attention in Hospital Escuela of Tegucigalpa

Washington, March 10, 2003 (PAHO) – In an official visit to Honduras, Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), praised the country’s vaccination program and said the Organization will work with the Honduran government in a project to improve attention in the Hospital Escuela of Tegucigalpa.

Roses met with the President of Honduras, Ricardo Maduro, and discussed ways to strengthen PAHO support to the country, strikes in the health sector, and the growing public health problems of urban and domestic violence. The PAHO director described strategies to prevent violence developed in Colombia, such as limiting hours for sale of alcohol, and earlier closing times for nightclubs, and agreed to facilitate information so that Honduras can study similar models.

In a press conference with some twenty journalists, Roses recalled that Central America will soon be declared free from cholera, and noted that no cases have been recorded in Honduras since 2001. She also pointed out that, despite the poverty that affects some regions of the country, Honduras managed to raise the life expectancy of the population in the last ten years.

Roses also met with the First Lady of Honduras, Aguas Ocaña de Maduro, Minister of Health Elías Lizardo, officials of the Central American Bank for Economic Integration and the PAHO representative in Honduras, Carlos Samayoa to discuss the Hospital Escuela Tegucigalpa. Roses said that PAHO will promote a study to improve the quality of care of the hospital. The new director of this health care center is Dr. Merlín Fernández, former PAHO representative in the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica.

In addition to her participation in a meeting with PAHO managers from all Central American countries, Roses will also meet with Armida de López Contreras, the presidential designee in charge of social issues, to define joint lines of work. Another topic under discussion is that of Chagas’ disease, and the regional project to interrupt the transmission of the vector that causes the disease by 2010. According to “Health in the Americas,” a PAHO publication, in Honduras, the prevalence of this disease was estimated at 7 percent in 1998 and 20 percent of chronic heart disease diagnosed were due to Chagas.

PAHO, established in 1902, is the world's oldest public health organization. It works with all the countries of the Americas to improve the health and quality of life of their inhabitants. It also serves as the Regional Office for the Americas of the World Health Organization.

	The Pan American Health Organization Promoting Health in the Americas