PAHO's Early Years
(PAHO/ WHO in Guyana . PAHO's Early Years . PAHO Today . Successes)

 

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the world’s oldest international public health agency was born in 1902 out of the necessities dictated by burgeoning trade and commerce among the countries of the Western Hemisphere. While international trade was clearly desirable, the nations soon realized that border patrols could not combat pestilence and diseases.

That year, representatives of 11 nations met in Washington, D.C., to formalize the structure of what is now the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). An international sanitary policy was adopted, periodic conventions on public health matters were planned, and a permanent executive board known as the International Sanitary Bureau was established in Washington, DC.

The Bureau’s objective was “to lend its best aid and experience toward the widest possible protection of the public health of each republic in the Americas, in order that diseases may be eliminated and that commerce between said republics may be facilitated”.

Over the years the Organization has undergone a number of formal transformations as its nature and scope evolved. These evolutions have included changes to its official name.

In 1958, the name was changed to the Pan American Health Organization.