Fact Sheet

The Initiative for Health Diplomacy in the Americas

As part of the President's vision for advancing the cause of social justice in the Western Hemisphere, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Mike Leavitt’s “Initiative for Health Diplomacy in the Americas” channels technical and financial resources from the U.S. Government and the private-sector to improve health care to people in Central America.

The Secretary’s overarching strategy for the Initiative for Health Diplomacy in the Americas centers on three, key objectives:

• Direct patient care provided in the region by U.S. Government personnel -- U.S. Government personnel, both in and out of uniform, will become more directly involved in treating and healing the poor in Central America. Dental care is one area where much assistance is needed. Some of the targeted countries invest less than one percent of their national Government health budgets into oral health. Beginning in June, U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps dentists from HHS joined U.S. Southern Command military medical and humanitarian missions to provide preventive dental care to needy citizens of these countries. The President has also sent the U.S. Navy Ship Comfort -- a medical ship -- to Latin America and the Caribbean. During its four month detail, the Comfort will make port calls in 12 countries, and its doctors, nurses, and health care professionals, including from the HHS Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, expect to treat 85,000 patients -- and conduct up to 1,500 surgeries.

• Establishment of a regional training center to train health care workers in the region – In April, the first training module for health-care workers in this training center took place at the City of Knowledge in Panamá City and was focused on pandemic influenza. Fifty students attended from all six partner countries — Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panamá and were taught by faculty from Central American countries and HHS. In June, the school’s permanent home was inaugurated at Santo Tomás Hospital in Panamá City. There, the center will train a broad variety of local health-care workers -- community health workers, sub-physicians, sub nurses, technicians -- so they can provide basic care. The training will also help them prepare for situations that could require specific skills related to infectious disease, such as pandemic influenza. The faculty will -- at least initially – will continue to consist of experts from Central American countries and HHS, with the possibility that experts from non-governmental organizations (NGOs) could join as trainers later.

• Harnessing the energies of U.S. NGOs that work in the region to coordinate health assistance -- By better coordinating on-the-ground health care delivery with U.S. NGOs that are operating in the region, we can do a better job of making the most of the resources we have to devote to this mission.

Secretary Leavitt has traveled to six Central American countries -- Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Panamá to advance these goals since March, 2007. Following closely on the President's own visit to six Latin American countries, these trips formalized Secretary Leavitt’s previous discussions with Health Ministers and other Governmental representatives about improving the health infrastructure of Central America.

The HHS initiative seeks to shift Central America’s health care focus from treatment to prevention. Further, the initiative will advance efforts toward better oral health care, which can significantly impact health care costs and prevent health care problems.

The U.S. Government and, specifically, HHS, has a long history of collaboration with governments and public and private organizations in the Americas to address the most pressing health issues. As a founding member of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) over 100 years ago, the United States has provided leadership as well as technical assistance, and collaborated in bilateral and multilateral in programs of mutual hemispheric interest in the Americas (e.g., water and sanitation, tobacco control, training, biomedical and behavioral research, border health, disease eradication and the fight against HIV/AIDS).