Former PAHO Director, Dr Carissa Etienne, to Receive Official Funeral in Dominica

ROSEAU – More than a month after she died of an apparent heart failure in

the United States, the Dominica government Monday announced that the former

director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Dr Carissa Etienne,

will be given an official funeral on Wednesday.

According to a statement issued by the Cabinet Secretariat, the government

has accorded the 71-year-old Dr Etienne, who died on December 1 last year,

an official funeral “in honour of her outstanding contribution to public

health administration in Dominica and as Director of the PAHO from 2013-2023”.

It said that a Day of Mourning has been declared for Wednesday, January 10,

the day of the funeral, and all state flags on all public buildings shall be

flown at half-mast.

The official viewing on Wednesday morning will take place at the State House

Conference Centre and public viewing will take place at Our Lady of Fatima

Catholic Church for 45 minutes in the afternoon.

Etienne, had recently retired from PAHO and was declared Director-Emeritus

on September 30, 2022, at the 30th Pan American Sanitary Conference.

“From a little girl in Massacre, Dominica, walking barefoot, going to

school, being as every other child was. If that child can rise to become director

of PAHO, then there is hope for every child that walks the streets of the

Americas (including the Caribbean),” said Etienne during the ceremony.

“Dr Carissa F. Etienne is credited for leading PAHO’s response to the

COVID-19 pandemic in the region of the Americas, as well as for efforts to

control the Zika and chikungunya epidemics and cholera and yellow fever

outbreaks in Haiti and Brazil,” the statement said.

Dr Etienne served as assistant director general of the World Health Organisation

from 2008 – 2013; PAHO assistant director from 2003 – 2008 and director of

Primary Health Care Services in Dominica 1989 – 2001.

She had previously served as Chief Medical Officer, Coordinator of the

National HIV/AIDS Programme, National Epidemiologist, and Medical Director at

the then Princess Margaret Hospital.

The statement said that President Sylvanie Burton, Prime Minister Roosevelt