Regional Stories
One woman's experience shows how timely access to HIV testing, treatment, and compassionate care can change the lives of mothers and their children.— October 2026 —When Sarah* learned she had HIV, she was young and pregnant. The diagnosis brought overwhelming fear. She worried about her own future, about the health of her unborn baby,…
PAHO is working with Belize and partners to expand access to safe drinking water in schools, creating healthier environments for children to learn and thrive.— October 2026 —Shakeyra Berry, principal of St. Matthew’s Government School in the Cayo District of central Belize, remembers the daily struggle to keep her students hydrated. The…
A diary entry written during Panama's 1950 polio epidemic reveals how the disease disrupted everyday life, decades before vaccination efforts eliminated wild poliovirus transmission in the Americas.October 2026
With funding from the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), a project led by Peru's Ministry of Health and PAHO/WHO aims to strengthen health services to provide timely, inclusive care for migrants and refugees.— October 2026 —Five years after leaving Venezuela, Sorelys Chávez still remembers the uncertainty she felt when she…
After ten years of research and work with Indigenous communities in Paraguay’s Chaco region, the country is preparing to submit evidence to PAHO and WHO that could confirm that trachoma is no longer a public health problem in Paraguay. Along the way, the effort has helped strengthen local health services and bring care closer to communities that…
Following Hurricane Melissa, thousands of Jamaicans received mental health and psychosocial support through efforts led by the Ministry of Health and Wellness, PAHO/WHO, and partners. Nearly a year on, their experiences offer lessons on how mental health support can strengthen recovery after disasters.— October 2026 —In the days after…
Experiences in Putumayo and Arauca show how communication strategies promote free and informed decisions about vaccination— September 2026 —More than a thousand kilometers apart, in different cultural contexts, two communities in Colombia share a common challenge: how to make informed decisions in the face of doubts, misinformation, and…
For decades, the country sustained vaccination campaigns, epidemiological surveillance, and the capacity to respond to a disease that had largely disappeared from everyday life. The result was the interruption of dog-mediated human rabies—a milestone achieved long before it could be formally recognized.— September 2026 —
As a physician in Barbados, Dr. Shreyas Shenoy has seen firsthand how some health challenges extend far beyond the walls of a clinic. While medical training prepares clinicians to care for individual patients, it does not always equip them to address the broader systems, policies and social barriers that shape health outcomes.— September 2026…