This year’s theme: «Seek advice from a qualified healthcare professional before taking antibiotics». Only take antibiotics after the prescription by a healthcare professional. Antibiotics are a precious resource, so it is important to get the right advice before taking them. This not only ensures you and your family get the best treatment, responsible use of antibiotics will also help reduce the threat of antibiotic resistance.

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The Sustainable Health Agenda for the Americas 2018-2030: A Call to Action for Health and Wellbeing in the Americas  (CSP29/6) represents the health sector response to commitments endorsed by PAHO Member States in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development together with unfinished business from the Millennium Development Goals and the Health Agenda for the Americas 2008-2017 and emerging regional public health challenges. It is operationalized through PAHO’s strategic plans and strategies, as well as through subregional and national health plans.

Universal health is a flagship initiative of the Pan American Health Organization/WHO Regional Office of the Americas. All the Member States have committed to it through their Strategic Plan for 2014-2019 and their 2014 Strategy for Universal Access to Health and Universal Health Coverage. Universal health means that everyone has access to and is covered by a well-organized and well-financed health system offering quality and comprehensive health services, one that protects people from financial ruin if they need to use these services. This three-minute animation video explains universal health and what it signifies to the Member States as a vehicle for saving and improving lives and helping countries to grow and develop their economies in a sustainable fashion.

Since its inception 61 years ago, Health in the Americas has been recognized as the flagship publication of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). It fills a special information niche as a one-of-a-kind report on major progress, challenges, and trends in health in the Region of the Americas.

Historically, Health in the Americas emerged in response to a mandate from the 7th PAHO Directing Council in 1953, in which Member States requested the Director of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PAHO’s secretariat) to prepare a periodic report on regional health conditions. Since its groundbreaking edition in 1956, the publication has been issued 15 times.

This latest 2017 edition reflects major innovations in the extension and development of Health in the Americas. We have expanded on the publication’s traditional epidemiological focus to include a new prospective dimension that provides scenarios constructed on the basis of historical trends and anticipated occurrences. Moving beyond merely observing, describing, and explaining past or present events, this edition goes one step further to forecast the future of health in the Region.