Division of
Disease Prevention and Control
Mission
1. To eradicate, eliminate, prevent and control disease.
2. To strengthen the capacity of PAHO member states to do so by
(a) promoting technically feasible, economically viable, and socially acceptable programs in the areas of communicable diseases, non-communicable diseases, zoonoses, and foot-and-mouth disease; and
(b) aiming its technical-cooperation activities at having a positive impact on public health that can be sustained by the countries of the Region.
3. To develop sustainable capacity to effectively address public health problems, which requires
- Adequate, reliable data on health problems.
- Evidence-based policies and plans.
- Allocating sufficient financial resources to support effective interventions.
- Human resources with the proper training to implement plans.
- High-quality programs in place throughout the Region.
- Ongoing evaluation and quality control to ensure effectiveness and to address changing needs.
4. To provide technical cooperation to thus assist countries at each of the aforementioned levels, depending on the health problems being addressed and the existing capacity and committment of the country: while older initiatives focus more on implementation issues, new ones focus on collecting reliable data and developing sound policies.
Main Focus
- Within a spirit of equity and Panamericanism, to raise the awareness of national institutions to the fact that, while infectious and re-emerging diseases continue to pose a significant problem in the Region, chronic and non-communicable diseases are also on the rise.
- To correct desegregated data to better understand and address problems of inequity in disease prevention and control programs.
- To continue to support technical-cooperation projects among countries as well as other forms of collaboration.
Priority Areas
All the Division's Programs have a renewed committment to disease prevention and recognize the importance of behavior change in this regard. Social communication has therefore become a common interest. The shared agenda with the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank includes the development of surveillance capacity in the countries for both communicable and non-communicable diseases, with special interest in HIV/AIDS collaborative programs.
Programs and Centers
The Division of Disease Prevention and Control carries out it mandate through four Regional Programs and three Pan American Centers:
