PAHO Awards Honor Health Leaders

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the Pan American Health and Education Foundation presented three awards in the fields of medicine, health care and bioethics during the 45th Directing Council meeting in September.

The awards honored a Brazilian, a Peruvian, and an Argentine for their contributions to medicine and public health.

Argentina's María Graciela de Ortúzar won the Manuel Velasco Suárez Bioethics Award.

María Graciela de Ortúzar, an Argentine physician and researcher, received the Manuel Velasco Suárez Bioethics Award for her efforts to develop a new framework on the benefits of genetic research in Latin America. She is professor of bioethics in the humanities, law, and medical schools of the National University of La Plata in Argentina and is currently a Fulbright research fellow at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, studying the ethical and social implications of the Human Genome Project. Her proposed research will culminate in a new framework on the benefits of genetic research for Latin America and will be published in book form.

Created in 2002, the Manuel Velasco Suárez Award is given to stimulate the development of young scholars in the field of bioethics. It was named after the Mexican physician, scholar and researcher who founded Mexico's National Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery and the Mexican National Bioethics Commission.

Eduardo Salazar Lindo won the Abraham Horwitz Award for health leadership.

Peruvian physician Eduardo Salazar Lindo received the Abraham Horwitz Award for Inter-American Health for his "outstanding dedication to infant and child health, especially in the control and mitigation of sanitation- and hygiene-related communicable diseases." The award cited his lifesaving work during Peru's 1991-95 cholera epidemic, including his use of a multimedia educational campaign and evidence-based integrated management of public health responders. Earlier in his career, Salazar Lindo pioneered the use of oral rehydration therapy in Peru, training Peruvians and foreign nationals and guiding Peru's Ministry of Health in its planning and implementation of a national oral rehydration program.

Brazil's Gastăo de Souza Campos received the 2004 PAHO Award for Administration.

The Abraham Horwitz Award recognizes excellence and leadership in health in the Americas by honoring those who "produce ideas and work of regional significance."

Gastăo de Souza Campos, a Brazilian physician and researcher, received the PAHO Award for Administration for his "outstanding contribution to the transformation of the health care model through the development of a management method that increased the democratization of the services by strengthening the links between services and the users of the Unified Health System (SUS) in Brazil."

The Award for Administration is given annually to an outstanding health professional to stimulate excellence and leadership in health administration and management.