Friends of PAHO Leads Call from Health, Security, and Business Leaders for Continued U.S. Leadership in the Pan American Health Organization

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Jul 30, 2026, 13:54 ET

Open letter signed by former U.S. health administrators, White House officials, corporate leaders and more urges support for 124-year-old regional health organization

WASHINGTON, July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- The United States must continue to lead, engage and sustain its investment in the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), a bipartisan group of American leaders write in an open letter published today by a new bipartisan coalition, Friends of PAHO.

The signatories note that PAHO, which was founded in Washington, D.C., under the leadership of President Theodore Roosevelt, has played an essential role in protecting America's health and economic security for 124 years. Since 1902, PAHO has helped control or eliminate health threats across the Americas and the Caribbean, including yellow fever, smallpox, polio, malaria and more.

The past few years have demonstrated that the U.S. remains vulnerable to infectious disease threats: H5N1 Avian Influenza, Dengue, Chagas, chikungunya and leishmaniasis are now in the United States, and New World Screwworm has reemerged after it was eliminated in 1966. The current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the hantavirus outbreak aboard a cruise ship in the South Atlantic provide a further reminder that infectious diseases do not respect borders and can reach the U.S. in a matter of days.

PAHO's strength lies in addressing such health crises through surveillance and rapid-response measures rooted in pan-regional coordination and expertise that exist nowhere else. PAHO is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but its 27 country offices across the region deliver critical disease surveillance, prevention and response.

The letter follows the Administration's FY 2027 budget request to Congress, which eliminates funding for PAHO.

"At a time when infectious disease threats continue to cross borders, we urge policymakers in Washington to reassert America's commitment to health security in the Western Hemisphere and recognize PAHO's essential role in safeguarding the American homeland," the signatories write.

The signatories add that PAHO advances U.S. economic and national security interests—protecting Americans abroad across the hemisphere—and call on the U.S. to reaffirm its leadership in PAHO and meet its funding obligations to the organization.

The open letter is being organized by a bipartisan coalition, Friends of PAHO, which also launches today. More than 100 people have signed the letter, including Andrew Natsios, 13th Administrator, U.S. Agency for International Development; David Quammen, Author, Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic; Deborah Rosenblum, Former Assistant Secretary for Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs; Donna Shalala, 18^th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and Former U.S. Representative for Florida's 27th district; Lt. General (Ret.) Eric Schoomaker, 42nd Army Surgeon General; Fred Upton, Former U.S. Representative for Michigan's 6th and 4th Districts and former Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Gabrielle Fitzgerald, Founder and CEO, Panorama and Co-Founder, Pandemic Action Network; Gerald Parker, Former Director, White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy; Georges C. Benjamin, Chief Executive Officer, American Public Health Association; Helen Arteaga, Deputy Mayor, Health and Human Services, City of New York; Jack Leslie, Former Chairman, Weber Shandwick; Jamie Bay Nishi, CEO, American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene; Jeanne Marrazzo, CEO, Infectious Diseases Society of America; Amb. Jimmy Kolker, Former Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Health and Human Services and former Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Uganda; John Barry, Historian; Author of The Great Influenza; Rear Adm. (Ret.) Kenneth Bernard, Former Special Assistant to the President for Biodefense and former Assistant Surgeon General; Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Lester Martinez-Lopez, Former Assistant Secretary for Defense for Health Affairs; Margaret Hamburg, 21st Commissioner of U.S. Food and Drugs; Michael Osterholm, Director, Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, University of Minnesota; Vice Adm. (Ret.) Richard Carmona, 17th U.S. Surgeon General; Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Ronald R. Blanck, 39^th Army Surgeon General; Seth Berkley, Former CEO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; Stefano Bertuzzi, CEO, American Society for Microbiology; Steve Morrison, Senior Vice President, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Rear Adm. (Ret) R. Tim Ziemer, Former U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator and former Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biothreats, U.S. National Security Council; Tom Frieden, Former Director, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Tommy G. Thompson, 19th U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and 42nd Governor of Wisconsin and more.