The United States and Latin America on Monday proposed an initiative aimed at strengthening the region’s health systems to face future pandemics, expanding the production of vaccines and medical supplies in the countries and improving pharmaceutical distribution networks.
“The region has suffered more than any other region from the pandemic,” said the US Undersecretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy and the Environment, José Fernández, when starting with leaders from the Latin American Health and Economy sectors the initiative called Economic Dialogue and Health of the Americas.
Fernández said that Latin America was the region with the highest number of deaths from coronavirus. He mentioned that with 8% of the world population he accumulated 30% of deaths from COVID-19.
“We realized in the region that our health systems failed us, they were not prepared for this type of pandemic because they had not been strengthened by the countries,” said the US official.
He pointed out that an essential part of the initiative is to strengthen health systems and strengthen the supply chains of medicines and medical supplies. The plan received the support of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Fernández visited Panama as part of an official regional tour that included Colombia and continues in Brazil. The formation of the dialogue, which will hold meetings in the coming months, was raised during the last Summit of the Americas, held in Los Angeles, California.
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