Panama City, March 17, 2023 (PAHO) – In his 1st nation stop by considering the fact that taking workplace, the Director of the Pan American Overall health Organization (PAHO), Jarbas Barbosa, met with the President of Republic of Panama, Laurentino Cortizo Cohen, and other national authorities to advance wellness priorities of regional significance.  

Throughout the meeting, President Cortizo Cohen and the PAHO Director discussed the want to strengthen regional manufacturing capacities for medicines and wellness technologies, the digital transformation of wellness systems and actions to mitigate the wellness effect of climate transform, amongst other subjects.  

“Panama is a important PAHO Member State and strategic companion for the area,” Dr. Barbosa stated, highlighting the country’s leadership in the fight against non-communicable illness (NCDs). “Panama’s policies to decrease tobacco, implement the HEARTS initiative for the management of cardiovascular illnesses and efforts to increase front-package labeling can serve as an instance to other nations,” the Director stated.  

President Cortizo Cohen thanked the PAHO Director for the “excellent relationship” amongst Panama and PAHO and commended the Organization’s essential assistance to the nation in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. He also highlighted PAHO’s assistance in the digital transformation of Panama’s wellness technique and underscored Panama’s strategic and logistical capacities for the distribution and doable future production of medicines in the area.  

Throughout the meeting, the President and the Director also discussed important lessons from the pandemic, which brought to the fore the want for additional equitable access to wellness supplies, medicines and vaccines amongst nations.  

The PAHO Director emphasized the significance of active regional participation in the International Negotiating Physique (INB) for the new pandemic instrument, which will be place forward for adoption by Globe Overall health Organization (WHO) Member States in 2024. “We have a exclusive window of chance to involve equitable access into an international agreement,” Dr. Barbosa stated. “If we do not use it, we could be in the very same devastating predicament in the subsequent wellness emergency, exactly where market place guidelines avert access to life-saving vaccines to smaller sized or much less economically highly effective nations.”  

Throughout his stop by to Panama, Dr. Barbosa also met with other national authorities and partners. On Thursday, he met with Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vladimir Franco, exactly where they discussed assistance to the wellness of migrants, amongst other subjects.   

The PAHO Director also met with Dr. Luis Francisco Sucre, Panama’s Minister of Overall health, to talk about subjects such as advancing telehealth, strengthening principal care to also cover NCD’s, and response to infectious illness outbreaks, such as malaria.  “PAHO will continue to function closely with Panama to advance these regions,” Dr. Barbosa stated.   

The PAHO Director visited the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory (Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud – ICGES), exactly where he met Director Juan Miguel Pascale. He thanked him for the institute’s help to Central American nations in tracking COVID-19 variants in the course of the pandemic, adding that the hopes to boost collaboration to strengthen regional surveillance capacity for other pathogens and antimicrobial resistance. 

Dr. Barbosa’s stop by also integrated discussions with the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Panama, Ana Patricia Graça, and with representatives of various UN agencies with which PAHO collaborates closely on the ground, like UNAIDS, FAO, UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA and OCHA. “Health is important to improvement,” the Director stated, underscoring that PAHO will continue operating with UN partners to “seek revolutionary options to decrease inequalities and advance the Sustainable Improvement Objective.”  

Panama became a PAHO Member State in 1947, and shortly immediately after signed a cooperation agreement for technical help to assistance national public wellness projects.