Racism and Health in Latin America

The Center for Health Equity in Latin America (CHELA) is hosting its first biennial meeting on Racism and Health in Latin America in October 2024 at Tulane University’s Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, with leaders from Latin American public health schools and programs. The objective of this event is to promote teaching and research aimed at preventing racism in the provision of health care in the region from the perspective of Latin American social medicine. This region is known for its vast ethnic diversity and significant inequalities in health outcomes that often correlate with social and ethnic backgrounds. Structural and systemic racism, which permeates all social contexts in the region, manifests and reproduces itself extensively in health facilities, resulting in unsafe and disrespectful healthcare delivery, or even outright neglect. Such discrimination, compounded by the weathering effect of structural and systemic racism, leads to inequitable health outcomes among racialized population groups, such as indigenous, Afro-descendant, and migrant communities, compared to other population groups. In response to this pressing public health problem, the meeting will meet the objectives of presenting and discussing evidence about the racist practices in healthcare delivery and its context in the region, examining how schools and public health programs can teach and conduct research to prevent racist practices with demonstrable results, and proposing the creation of a Pan American Diploma on the Prevention of Racism in Health Care.