Emerging Illnesses and Age of Retirement

According to the last Census, Panama has 3.322.576 inhabitants, form which 1.672.568 are men and 1.650.008 are women.    From the epidemiological view, Panama, as well as other countries of the region, is experiencing a process of epidemiological polarization, characterized by the presence of infectious diseases, typically present in underdeveloped countries, with a constant increase in importance of chronical and social diseases as has been the case in developed countries. These circumstances, along with the demographic transition that the country is experiencing, determine the health-disease process and impose the current challenges. In terms of coverage, 80% of the population is assigned to the CSS and 20% to MINSA, which apart from being an important service provider is also the governing body of the National Health System.    According to Panama’s legislation, the age of retirement for women is 57 and 62 for men.    The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines emerging illnesses as “those whose incidence has increased in the last two decades or threatens with increasing in the near future” (1994). Of infectious nature are: AIDS, hanta virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza “bird flu”, influenza H1N1 etc. Of uninfectious (non communicable) nature are: violence at work (sexual harassment, labor harassment) labor stress, muscle-skeletal diseases, labor cancer, heart diseases, dermatosis and respiratory illnesses, mental illness. Of socio-cultural nature are: obesity, alcoholism, drugs, etc.    References: For age of retirement we considered the actuarial studies, demographic transition, economic and financial studies, biometric studies.