The Pan American Health Organization's Health in the Americas initiative is an organizational effort lead by the Department of Evidence and Intelligence for Action in Health (EIH) under the direction of Sebástian García Saisó, EIH Department Director, and coordinated by Adrienne Cox, Health Analysis and Equity Metrics Unit Chief in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) technical departments, PAHO/World Health Organization country offices, and Member States. This report is the result of collaboration among many individuals. The full report and additional material are available on the Health in the Americas portal (hia.paho.org).

This edition of the report, Health in the Americas: Leading the Way to Disease Elimination, focuses on the PAHO's initiative to eliminate communicable diseases, under the direction of Sylvain Aldighieri, Director of the Department of Communicable Diseases, Prevention, Control, and Elimination, and coordinated by Martha Saboyá, Senior Advisor of the Elimination Initiative. The report coordination team included Adrienne Cox, Martha Saboyá, Oscar Martinez, Yackelin Fuentes, and Paulina Pacheco. Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP) were collaborative partners who provided technical assistance in the development, information and content synthesis, writing, editing, design, and layout of the report. The CCP team was led by Sarah Harlan (Senior Program Officer II), Mariana Ortiz Barreto (Communication Specialist), Marcela Aguilar (Communications and Marketing Manager), Rebecca Pickard (Senior Editor), and Mark Beisser (Art Director).

The report methodology and content were developed in coordination with the Health in the Americas Working Group: Ana Amaris, Ashley Baldwin, Ana Elena Chévez, Amalia del Riego, Philip Dingwall, Vanesa García, Ursula Guthe, Patricia Najera Hamrick, Thiago Hernandes, Pablo Jiménez, Paulo Leite, Christopher Lim, Alma Morales, Oscar Mujica, Ana Ortigoza, Dionne Patz, Blanca Peñaloza, Antonio Sanhueza, Patricia Soliz, Gina Tambini, Martha Velandia, and Andrea Vicari. Gratitude is extended to the working group members for the coordinated insightful inputs from the various technical teams, countries, and territories throughout the Americas Region.

The team gratefully received guidance and inputs from the PAHO Executive Management Team: Jarbas Barbosa (PAHO Director), Mary Lou Valdez (PAHO Deputy Director), Rhonda Sealey-Thomas (PAHO Assistant Director), and Kristan Beck (PAHO Director of Administration). The team would like to thank the PAHO Department Directors and Country Representatives for their support, guidance, and comments throughout the Organization-wide development and review process. Gratitude is extended to the following individuals who shared additional insightful knowledge through interview sessions about Health in the Americas and the Elimination Initiative: Sylvan Aldighieri, Ernesto Bascolo, Ana Elena Chévez, Santiago Cornejo, Amalia del Riego, Gerry Eijkemans, Marcos Espinal, James Fitzgerald, Sebástian García Saisó, Guillermo Gonzálvez, Anselm Hennis, Silvana Luciani, Blanca Peñaloza, Pilar Ramón- Pardo, Judit Ruis, Martha Saboyá, Daniel Salas, Gina Tambini, Rhonda Sealey-Thomas, and Orielle Solar Hormazabal. Those comments provided invaluable information about the initiatives.

Finally, gratitude is extended to all who contributed to this report, including those whose names may not appear here.

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