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2nd Annual Jeffrey P. Koplan The 2nd Annual Jeffrey P. Koplan Global Leadership in Public Health Lecture presented Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Dr. Roses’ lecture was titled “Change and Challenges: Improving Health in the Americas.” The event took place on Thursday, July 10, at CDC’s Roybal Campus in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Roses discussed three major challenges to health in the Americas: aging populations, increasingly urban populations, and increasing economic inequity. While medical science has made great progress in identifying causes and cures for many of the diseases that have traditionally plagued the western hemisphere and the world, these three factors can confound efforts to implement that knowledge. This “unfinished agenda” mostly consists of preventing and treating infectious disease, as well as preventing infant and maternal deaths. Just as important to PAHO’s mission is ”the new agenda,” which consists of preventing and managing chronic diseases through individual behavior change. Dr. Roses concluded by emphasizing the crucial role of the trust among people and among nations. Dr. Roses joined the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in 1984 as head of the surveillance unit in PAHOs Caribbean Epidemiology Center (CAREC) in Trinidad and Tobago. From 1988 to 1992 she served as the PAHO/WHO representative in Bolivia. In 1995 she was named Assistant Director of PAHO), and became a member of the WHO Global Program Management Group, which she chaired for two terms. In September 2002, Dr. Roses was elected Director of PAHO by the countries of the Americas. She also serves as the Regional Director for the Americas of WHO. |