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The year in Review: PAHO/WHO in 2016 - From the Zika epidemic to the elimination of measles
From the Zika epidemic and the birth of thousands of babies with congenital malformations, through the declaration of measles as eliminated from the American continent, 2016 was a year of serious challenges and important successes for health in the Americas.
2016: the year Zika evolved from an emergency into a long-term public health challenge
In 2016, Zika virus spread rapidly throughout the Americas after its initial appearance in Brazil in May 2015. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) responded quickly, deploying over 80 expert missions to help its Member States respond to the epidemic and launching a new regional strategy to prevent and control mosquito-borne viruses, which threaten an estimated 500 million at-risk people in the region.
Toward the end of polio: The vaccine ‘switch’ in the Americas
In 2016, 155 countries and territories from the Americas and around the world took a historic step towards the eradication of poliomyelitis. During two weeks in April, in a process coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO), known as “the switch,” the health sector changed one type of polio vaccine for another.
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