Toward Health for All (1975 -1983)
 
Chronology of events
 
Health and health care services in the Americas developed in the midst of vertiginous political, economical, and social change from the mid-1970’s to the early 1980’s. The course of political progress in Latin America proved tortuous. One country after another suffered military coups that thwarted the cause of democracy. Yet a number of countries in the Region: Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize, Antigua, and Barbuda gained their independence and joined the community of nations as well as the Pan American Health Organization.

As they had at the beginning of the 1960’s and 1970’s, the Governments of the Americas charted the future of collective health action, this time in the pursuit of health for all by formulating national and regional strategies. To achieve the extension of services, the Organization:

 

The Health of the Americas

 

 
 
Chronology of Events
1974-1977 Roughly US$ 1.36 billion, half in the form of international loans and half from national funds was invested in water and sewage systems.
1977 WHO launched the Expanded Program of Immunization to provide immunization services for all children of the world by 1990 against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, poliomyelitis, measles, and tuberculosis.
1977 WHO Resolution – main target for the remainder of the century would be the attainment by all citizens of the world by the year 2000 of a level of health that would permit them to lead socially and economically productive life.
1979 Global Eradication of Smallpox – announced by WHO
1980 Developed framework for the Organization’s and the countries’ health program for the remainder of the century – 

Health for All by the Year 2000 Strategies and 

Plan of Action for Health for All by the Year 2000

1981 Identification of a new threat to human health – Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS)
1982 XXI Pan American Sanitary Conference 

Dr. Carlyle Guerra de Macedo of Brazil elected Director