Latin America CDC a Must, say Public Health Leaders and AHF
April 26 2024 - 6:48PM
Business Wire
In response to the unprecedented challenges that Latin America
has faced during various health crises such as AH1N1, Zika,
COVID-19, and Dengue, a prominent group of former health ministers
and public health academics from the region has published in the
prestigious journal The Lancet the need to create the Latin
American Regional Center for Disease Prevention and Control (LATAM
CDC). This new agency would seek to strengthen regional resilience
against future health crises through collaboration and resource
optimization among nations.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Latin America, home to
approximately 8.2% of the world's population, reported about 80
million cases and 1.7 million deaths, representing 10% and 25% of
global figures, respectively. This impact underscores the lack of
effective collaboration among the region's countries, which limited
the optimal use of regional resources, such as coordinated
negotiation and acquisition of health inputs, diagnostic tests,
ventilators, medications, and vaccines.
Patricia J. Garcia, former health minister of Peru, principal
professor of the Faculty of Public Health of the Universidad
Peruana Cayetano Heredia, and one of the initiative's proponents,
emphasized the importance of this regional collaboration: "The
experience with COVID-19 demonstrated critical deficiencies in our
public health infrastructure. The LATAM CDC will serve as a
fundamental pillar for prevention, preparedness, and rapid response
to future health emergencies, thus strengthening our regional
health sovereignty."
Enrique Paris, former health minister of Chile and current
president of the Institute of Public Health Policies of the
University of San Sebastian, highlighted the need to overcome the
regional political and ideological barriers that have traditionally
hindered effective cooperation: "Our goal with the LATAM CDC is to
transcend political divisions and provide a unified and
scientifically validated response to public health crises. This is
an essential step to protect the health and safety of our
populations."
Jorge Saavedra, Executive Director of the AHF Global Public
Health Institute, commented on the proposed governance structure
for the LATAM CDC, which seeks to include a wide range of actors:
"We propose an inclusive governance model, similar to the Africa
CDC or that of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and
Malaria, which integrates governments, academic institutions,
international organizations, the private sector, civil society, and
communities. This diverse and collaborative structure is crucial
for the success of the LATAM CDC."
The LATAM CDC aspires to be a technical center of excellence,
free from political interference, promoting horizontal
(south-south) cooperation between countries, training public health
professionals, standardizing practices for prevention,
preparedness, and response to pandemics, and strengthening national
health systems. Additionally, it proposes to improve data
collection and sharing capabilities and perform real-time regional
disease surveillance.
This body will also seek to develop public health goods, such as
response models and new digital technologies, and have the
authority to declare Regional Public Health Security Emergencies,
which would allow for more agile and effective resource
mobilization compared to current procedures that depend on
declarations of emergencies by the World Health Organization.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to
over 1.9 million clients in 46 countries worldwide in the U.S.,
Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and
Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website:
www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter:
@aidshealthcare and Instagram: @aidshealthcare
The AHF Global Public Health Institute is an
initiative of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation created to engage in
global public health policy analysis and research to generate
objective evidence that can inform improvements in public health
policy at the global, regional, national, and local levels,
particularly for infectious diseases. To learn more about the AHF
Global Public Health Institute, visit
https://ahfinstitute.org/.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240426006070/en/
Fernando Ariel Garcia Terron Director AHF Global Public Health
Institute for Latin America and the Caribbean Email:
Ariel.Terron@ahf.org Telephone: +52 55 2858 2004
Denys Nazarov, Director of Global Policy & Communications,
AHF +1.323.308.1829 denys.nazarov@ahf.org