From its very beginnings, the Pan American Health Organization has had as one of its principal functions the collection from, and dissemination to, the republics of the Americas "of all data of every character relative to the sanitary conditions of their respective ports and territories." For close to a century, it has documented the changes and advances in health achieved by the countries of the Region.
Since 1954 the Organization has issued a quadrennial publication, Health in the Americas, formerly Health Conditions in the Americas (1994 Edition), that assesses the evolving health situation—diseases, services, resources—at the regional and country levels. An annual series titled Health Statistics from the Americas began to be published in 1991. PAHO's country profile database functions as the official regional information source on mortality in the Americas.
