On September 26, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the Pan American Health and Education Foundation (PAHEF) honored health leaders from various countries of Americas, for providing health services and for promoting health science in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Every year the PAHO-PAHEF Awards are presented to individuals and organizations for rendering services to improve public health. These services are in various fields, including leadership and administration, health literature, veterinary public health, voluntary service, bioethics, and universal health care
This year, during the 51st Directing Council meeting of PAHO/WHO, which is being held this week in Washington, the 2011 PAHO/PAHEF Awards for Excellence in Inter-American Public Health were announced. The U.S. Peace Corps, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary and Congressman Silvestre Reyes of Texas, were also given special recognition this year.
The winners of this year’s PAHO-PAHEF awards are:
- Abraham Horwitz Award for Excellence in Leadership in Inter-American Public Health: It was awarded to Dr. Peter Jay Hotez, Baylor College of Medicine, United States, for his brilliant work in the fields of global health, vaccination, and neglected tropical disease control. He has working tirelessly to develop vaccines for parasitic diseases, including hookworm, schistosomiasis, and Chagas.
- Manuel Velasco Suárez Award for Excellence in Bioethics:
It was awarded to Dr. Laura Adriana Albarellos, Universidad de la Américas Puebla, Mexico, for a proposal presenting a legislative framework for the operation of gene banks and genetic databases that would work as per the Universal Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights and International Declaration on Human Genetic Data guidelines of UNESCO. - Sérgio Arouca Award for Excellence in Universal Health Care:
It was awarded to Integrated Management of Adolescent and Adult Illness Program, Ministry of Health, Guyana, for its endeavor to provide good health services to improve care and treatment of illnesses, within limited resources. - Clarence H. Moore Award for Excellence for Voluntary Service:
It was awarded to Women’s International Network for Guatemalan Solutions (WINGS), Guatemala. WINGS has been working to improve the lives of Guatemalan families by providing them with education, counseling on family planning, reproductive health, and other health programs and services. - Pedro N. Acha Award for Excellence in Veterinary Public Health:
It was awarded to Dr. Francisca Samsing, Universidad Mayor of Chile, for her undergraduate thesis on the presence of dioxin and its precursors in foods and processed products of animal origin. - Fred L. Soper Award for Excellence in Public Health Literature:
It was awarded to Dr. Ana Lucía Lovadino de Lima, University of São Paulo, Brazil, She is the lead author of the article Causes of the accelerated decline in child under nutrition in Northeastern Brazil (1986-1996-2006); the article interprets and analyzes data from population-based health surveys of children under 5 in northeastern Brazil. - PAHO Award for Administration:
It was awarded to Dr. John Edward Greene, for the exceptional work rendered by him as former Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Social Development at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and also for his role in the establishment of the new Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).
The PAHO/PAHEF Awards for Excellence in Inter-American Public Health were started in the year 1975 to applaud and honor individuals and organizations that have been doing productive work in the field of health improvement in the Americas during the last 100 years and to promote new leaders that are working in the same field.
