UNITED NATIONS – The Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, is urging governments, civil society, and private sector partners to intensify efforts to prevent suicide and expand access to mental health care across the Americas.
Director of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr. Jarbas BarbosaSpeaking at a high-level event on the sidelines of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Dr. Barbosa described suicide as “a growing public health crisis that demands our immediate attention and action.
“More than 100,000 lives are lost to suicide in the Americas each year. Between 2000 and 2021, the suicide rate in the Region increased by 17.4 per cent, making the Americas the only geographic region in the world to record an increase during that period.”
The event, being held under the theme “Partnering for Impact: Leveraging Cross-Sector Partnerships for Suicide Prevention in the Americas,” and co-hosted by the World Health Organization (WHO) Foundation and Boehringer Ingelheim, brought together ministers, diplomats, global health experts, foundations, and civil society groups to explore the power of partnerships in confronting suicide.
The PHO director said that recent findings from PAHO’s new regional report on Suicide in the Americas, indicated that three of the countries with the highest suicide rates globally are located in the region, while nearly 8 per cent of suicide deaths occur among men, women are almost five times more likely to attempt suicide.
“We must remember that each suicide affects countless individuals, families, and communities that are all profoundly impacted by these enduring losses. Preventing suicides is therefore vital to building healthy and resilient communities,” he said.
In response to the urgent need for action, Dr. Barbosa officially presented PAHO’s new Regional Suicide Prevention Initiative, launched earlier this month.
The initiative aims to reduce suicide mortality across the region, with a particular focus on countries experiencing high or rising suicide rates. Built around the WHO’s evidence-based LIVE LIFE implementation guide, the initiative will help governments implement coordinated and sustainable suicide prevention strategies.
“We have the tools and the expertise to reverse the rising suicide trends in the Americas. But we must work together in partnership to successfully implement proven interventions. Now is the time to prioritize and invest in suicide prevention,” the PAHO director said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Barbosa said there is an urgent need to address the interplay between infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which together pose the greatest public health challenges in the Americas.
“NCDs, principally cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases, are the greatest public health challenges of our time. In the Americas, they caused 6 million deaths in 2021, with 38 per cent occurring prematurely in people under 70, during their most productive years.”
He said that over 240 million people in the region live with NCDs, requiring ongoing treatment and care, emphasizing that lifestyle factors like sedentarism, ultra processed foods, obesity, tobacco use, air pollution, and rapid urbanization fuel this epidemic.
He said that population aging is also a major driver of NCDs in the region, and yet, an often-overlooked factor is the bidirectional link between infectious diseases and NCDs, where each can exacerbate the other.
“We dramatically experienced the interplay between NCDs and infectious diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic, where people living with NCDs were more susceptible to infection and faced increased risk of severe disease and death.
“Therefore, during the pandemic, PAHO prioritized the continuity of services for people with NCDs to ensure that comorbidities were adequately addressed with appropriate treatment,” he added.
He said a striking example is the relationship between diabetes and tuberculosis.
“Each condition exacerbates the other, complicating both diagnosis and treatment. Diabetes increases susceptibility to tuberculosis and can lead to suboptimal treatment outcomes or heightened risk of drug resistance. Conversely, tuberculosis can impair glycemic control, trigger diabetes onset, or interfere with its management due to drug interactions,” he said.
The PAHO director said cervical cancer, affecting nearly 80,000 women annually in the Americas, is caused by persistent human papillomavirus (HPV) infection.
“HPV is a sexually transmitted infection, and both HPV vaccination and testing are cost-effective ways to prevent cervical cancer. PAHO is helping countries scale up coverage to achieve the elimination targets of 90 per cent HPV vaccination, 70 per cent screening, and 90 per cent treatment.”
Similarly, liver cancer, linked to hepatitis B and C, is being addressed as part of PAHO’s comprehensive immunization program. The Organization works with governments and civil society to vaccinate newborns against hepatitis B within 24 hours of birth and to promote treatment for both hepatitis B and C to help prevent liver cancer.
