Pan American Health Organization

The Pan American Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international health cooperation across the Americas, serving as the regional office for the World Health Organization in the region and as the health organization of the Inter-American System. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., it encompasses thirty five member states and four associate members, working through twenty seven country offices and three Pan American centers to foster technical cooperation on communicable and noncommunicable disease, health system strengthening, and emergency and disaster response. Known in Latin America as OPS or OPAS, it originated in December 1902 as the Pan American Sanitary Bureau and is generally regarded as the world's first international public health organization.