• The campaign “Zero Maternal Deaths: Prevent the Preventable”, launched in March 2023 by the Regional Task Force for the Reduction of Maternal Mortality, is an important initiative that aims speed up the reduction of maternal mortality in the region.
• The programme of universal vaccination against the respiratory syncytial virus implemented in Chile for children born between October 2023 and October 2024 made it possible to eradicate mortality attributed to this virus in this cohort and significantly alleviated the healthcare pressure generated by this viral infection.
• The PAHO Diseases Elimination Initiative, approved in 2019 by the countries of the region, plays an important role in seeking to strengthen health services in the areas of service delivery, information and surveillance systems, and governance and stewardship.
• The PAHO Better Care for NCDs initiative focuses on strengthening different elements of primary healthcare.
• The AirQ+ Regional Expert Group for Latin America and the Caribbean aims to build technical capacities in the countries of the region to conduct impact assessments for the purpose of enhancing the integrated management of health and air quality.
• Chile, Colombia and Mexico have implemented programmes, policies and initiatives to both monitor air quality and strengthen legislation to reduce pollution.
• The regulation of exposure to certain hazardous chemicals such as asbestos was achieved in Colombia in 2019 through Act No. 1968, in Argentina in 2000 (Resolution No. 845) and in Chile in 2001 (Decree No. 656).

• In order to reduce inequalities in the health domain, progress must be made in universalizing coverage and access to good-quality services, so that all people can prevent, detect and treat their health problems.

• In recent years, progress has been made with regard to Goal 3 in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. However, these advances are considered insufficient to achieve the Goal within the established period.
• Noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, respiratory diseases and diabetes, along with mental, neurological and substance use disorders, and intentional and unintentional injuries (also referred to as “external causes”), were among the leading causes of death in the region in 2019. 1
• With regard to communicable diseases, countries in the region have faced several infectious disease outbreaks, such as those caused by the dengue and chikungunya viruses, or coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which have tested their capacities to contain the spread among the population.
• Infant and neonatal mortality have been declining systematically in the region, and a number of achievements have been made in terms of adolescent fertility rates and meeting the demand for contraception. However, structural obstacles remain in terms of access to sexual and reproductive health services, including their segmentation, various barriers to receiving care, insufficient funding to meet needs, and problems of quality and timeliness of services.
• The mortality rate attributable to environmental exposure to certain chemicals varies significantly between countries. Many cities in the region exceed the maximum levels of air pollution recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), thus putting people’s health and lives at risk.2
• The region has a high level of universal health service coverage, according to WHO parameters.3 However, significant barriers to health access persist. Household financial protection against private health expenditures also faces major challenges.

1 Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Leading causes of death and disease burden in the Americas: noncommunicable diseases and external causes, Washington, D.C., 2024.

2 World Health Organization (WHO), WHO global air quality guidelines: particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), ozone, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide, Geneva, 2021. 

3 World Health Organization/World Bank (WHO/World Bank), Tracking Universal Health Coverage: 2023 Global Monitoring Report, Geneva, 2023

• In the 2010s, the maternal mortality ratio in the region remained in a range of 74–78 deaths per 100,000 live births. However, in 2020, there was a significant increase to almost 88 deaths per 100,000 live births.
• Under-5 mortality fell from an average of 33.1 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 15.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022.
• The average neonatal mortality rate declined from 16.9 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2000 to 9 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022.
• The adolescent fertility rate in the region was 51 births per 1,000 women in 2024.
• The mortality rate attributed to noncommunicable diseases in Latin America and the Caribbean has trended down, dropping from 18.7% in 2000 to 14.8% in 2019.
• The suicide mortality rate per 100,000 population has remained broadly stable, albeit edging up from 6.0 to 6.2 between 2015 and 2019 in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, it is 14.8% higher than the rate of 5.4 recorded in 2000.
• At the regional level, the rate of new HIV infections per 1,000 uninfected population decreased from 0.27 in 2000 to 0.19 in 2022.
• Malaria has retreated significantly in the region over the past two decades, dropping from 13.1 cases per 1,000 population in 2000 to 3.6 in 2022. In contrast, the incidence of tuberculosis, which had fallen from 54 to 41 cases per 100,000 population between 2000 and 2015, has risen again to 48 cases per 1,000 population in 2022.
• In 2022, 79% of the population in Latin America and the  Caribbean received the third dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTP3), but take-up has been declining since 2016, when about 90% of the population had received the vaccine.
• With regard to the human papillomavirus vaccine, 63% of the target population was covered in 2017, after which there was a fall-off; in 2022, coverage was 52% of the population.

• The campaign “Zero Maternal Deaths: Prevent the Preventable”, launched in March 2023 by the Regional Task Force for the Reduction of Maternal Mortality, is an important initiative that aims speed up the reduction of maternal mortality in the region.
• The programme of universal vaccination against the respiratory syncytial virus implemented in Chile for children born between October 2023 and October 2024 made it possible to eradicate mortality attributed to this virus in this cohort and significantly alleviated the healthcare pressure generated by this viral infection.
• The PAHO Diseases Elimination Initiative, approved in 2019 by the countries of the region, plays an important role in seeking to strengthen health services in the areas of service delivery, information and surveillance systems, and governance and stewardship.
• The PAHO Better Care for NCDs initiative focuses on strengthening different elements of primary healthcare.
• The AirQ+ Regional Expert Group for Latin America and the Caribbean aims to build technical capacities in the countries of the region to conduct impact assessments for the purpose of enhancing the integrated management of health and air quality.
• Chile, Colombia and Mexico have implemented programmes, policies and initiatives to both monitor air quality and strengthen legislation to reduce pollution.
• The regulation of exposure to certain hazardous chemicals such as asbestos was achieved in Colombia in 2019 through Act No. 1968, in Argentina in 2000 (Resolution No. 845) and in Chile in 2001 (Decree No. 656).

• To prevent maternal mortality, there is a need for expanded access to sexual and reproductive health along with maternal health —in particular, professional and timely care throughout the prenatal, delivery and postpartum cycle—, the functional integration of health networks and the elimination of unsafe abortion.
• Child health should be prioritized through the application of specific prevention policies and structural social improvements, such as the expansion of women’s education, the health network and access to basic services.
• There is a need to strengthen country-level action with respect to health measures aimed at the most vulnerable social groups, such as the poor, people of African descent and Indigenous Peoples, and the rural population.
• The role of primary healthcare in terms of prevention, diagnosis, access to treatment and reduction of stigma should be emphasized, mainly in the case of people living with HIV. It is also a key factor in reducing deaths from noncommunicable diseases and in preventing and treating substance use. In general, the strengthening of primary healthcare is the main strategy for achieving universal health coverage.
• It is essential to implement comprehensive strategies that address the root causes of traffic accidents, such as greater investment in road safety, development of a safer and more efficient public transport system, increased road safety education, the application of highway infrastructure standards and improvements, and the strengthening of regulations and enforcement.
• Follow-up on the provisions of international agreements — specifically, the Cairo Programme of Action and, above all, the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development— is essential in order to implement initiatives to prevent adolescent pregnancy based on pillars such as the recognition of the sexual and reproductive rights of adolescents and the formal provision of specialized and suitable services and spaces to provide broad-ranging counselling and timely, quality comprehensive care focused on the exercise of sexual and reproductive rights.
• To meet the health challenges associated with water and air pollution and exposure to hazardous substances, it is essential to have adequate information on emissions and to be able to monitor them continuously. This will make it possible to formulate and follow up public policies and standards on emissions and engage all stakeholders in the development of preventive measures.
• It is important to have pollutant release and transfer registers in place and to implement the various international conventions that address this problem, such as the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade, the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, and the Minamata Convention on Mercury.
• There is a need to strengthen the research and development of vaccines and medicines in order to guarantee universal access to vaccines and prevent the reappearance of diseases that had already been eradicated in several of the region’s countries.
• Investment in health must be increased, ensuring the financial sustainability of the system and managing resources efficiently. There is a need to develop health systems that ensure financial protection, coverage and access under a universalist approach that is sensitive to differences, guaranteeing commitments on coverage, sufficiency (quality) and financial sustainability, both for current and future generations.
• It is essential to strengthen health systems to increase their resilience and their capacity to detect and prevent future outbreaks of communicable diseases, and to respond to them effectively and efficiently, without triggering a disruption of health services or a health crisis such as that experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• It is therefore essential to promote structural transformations aimed at ensuring the population’s right to health, which means developing universal, comprehensive, sustainable and resilient health systems.