Bulletin Health Systems and Services - PAHO - April 2022

PAHO Director calls for immunization gaps to be closed for all vaccines, including COVID-19

In 2020, 2.7 million children in the Americas did not receive the essential vaccines needed to keep them healthy due to interruptions in health services caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, warned Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Carissa F. Etienne. Gaps in vaccination coverage, including for COVID-19 vaccines, must be closed, she said.

PAHO launches a comprehensive EPHF training strategy to strengthen institutional capacities in the countries of the region

PAHO organized the seventh meeting of the webinar series on the essential public health functions (EPHF), focused on the training strategies developed by PAHO to strengthen the institutional capacities of countries. This initiative involves a significant number of actors and sectors to ensure an intersectoral, broad, and pluralistic approach.

Professionals of the Americas complete PAHO course to improve country surveillance of antimicrobial consumption

More than 570 professionals completed the course on the WHO methodology for the surveillance of antimicrobial consumption, offered by PAHO. This second edition of the course was taken by professionals from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Spain, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

PAHO develops a tool to support the evaluation of countries' antimicrobial stewardship programs

PAHO has developed a tool to evaluate antimicrobial stewardship programs (known in Spanish as PROA) in hospitals, that will help countries and health facilities determine their level of preparedness for optimizing antimicrobial use at the institutional level.

With PAHO support, seven countries begin recording antimicrobial consumption

Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago have begun collecting information on antimicrobial consumption during 2020 to record domestic consumption following the methodology of the World Health Organization (WHO). 

PAHO offers new free courses to strengthen public health

PAHO is offering a series of new open-access virtual courses to strengthen the knowledge and competencies of health workers in several public health disciplines. With 1.7 million users, PAHO's Virtual Public Health Campus is a network of people, institutions, and organizations that share public health courses, resources, and information.

Some 220 professionals complete the course on Implementation and Strengthening of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs

Professionals from countries of the Americas completed the second edition of the course on Implementation and Strengthening of Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs hosted at the Virtual Campus for Public Health.