This is especially critical in a region like our own, which has tropical zones with high potential to harbor new diseases 🦠, like the Amazon Basin, Gran Chaco, the Lacandon Jungle, the Darien Isthmus, and La Mosquitia.
That’s why it’s crucial that pandemic 🦠 plans and policies reflect the expertise and recommendations of 👉🏽 public health, 👉🏽 animal health and 👉🏽 environmental sectors.
As climate change impacts ecosystems and as people come into closer contact with animals via urbanization and deforestation, the potential for spillover is increasing.
The health sector plays a critical role in managing this risk, but it can’t do it alone.
We have a list of emerging pathogens 🦠 that have the potential for public health risk ⚠️, and almost all of those are either zoonotic, meaning that they can transmit from animals to people, or common to humans and animals.
Whether it’s COVID-19, Ebola, chikungunya, yellow fever, avian influenza, or Zika, we’ve seen that diseases 🦠 that spill from animals to people can have severe impacts.
COVID-19 🦠 has been unique in its scale and impact, but it’s not the first emerging disease to cause ripple effects throughout the world.
And just as we work together 🤝 to control this pandemic 🦠, we must consider the ways in which we can collaborate to avoid future pandemics.
Whether it’s getting vaccines to our region 🌎 or tracking the spread of variants 🦠, controlling this pandemic rests on the work and support of partners across our region and indeed the world.
We have vaccines 💉 from Sinovac and AstraZeneca available this year and will have vaccines from the three producers in 2022.
I am pleased to announce that PAHO has already closed agreements with 3️⃣ EUL authorized producers: Sinovac, Sinopharm and AstraZeneca.
We are now in conversation with our member states that want to use the alternative of direct purchase through the Revolving Fund.
