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In 1954, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) under the administration of its Zone 1 Office in Caracas, Venezuela established a small office in Jamaica, on the Ministry of Health compound, Slipe Pen Road, Kingston. Malaria, a major health concern of that period, was the immediate focus of technical cooperation.
Following Jamaica’s Independence in 1962, the PAHO/WHO Jamaica Office was re-organized and the programme of technical cooperation expanded with an international professional staff in place. The Office also served five other countries - The Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos Islands until the late seventies early eighties, when The Bahamas (with responsibility for the Turks and Caicos Islands) and Belize established their own offices.
In recent decades, PAHO/WHO has been playing an increasingly active role in assisting to develop and implement strategies for health care to address the specific needs of the peoples. This has resulted in an increasing and closer collaboration between the CARICOM countries and PAHO/WHO. The organization has been playing an integral and major role in both the development and implementation of every one of the health care initiatives which have been undertaken from the latter half of the twentieth century. Today, the staffing of the PAHO/WHO office is dynamic reflecting the needs of the Ministry of Health and its process of development.
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