HAVANA, Cuba.- The member states of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) elected Dominican Dr. Carissa Faustina Etienne as their new director, who will assume her five-year term of office on February 1st, 2013.

After her acceptance, the executive denounced the inequalities affecting the region, for which about 74 million people still live in extreme poverty, according to information provided by the PAHO office on the island.

Etienne declared herself to be in favor of the PAHO’s health work to obtain greater achievements in the development of plans in the Americas, for which it’s necessary to face several challenges, above all in the most vulnerable and marginalized sectors, she stressed.

During the 28th Pan-American Health Conference under way until Friday in Washington, it was known that Dr. Etienne will replace her Argentinean colleague Mirta Roses, who was the director of the PAHO since February, 2003.

In one of the sessions, Roses praised Cuba’s advances in public health, with a strategy and plan of action to reduce premature deaths and also since childhood, in order to decrease transmissible diseases.

Due to her notable results in the interests of humanity, Dr. Mirta Roses was appointed Director Emeritus of the Pan-American Health Office by participants in the forum.