WHO- INTRO

WHO

Introduction

1. The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system. WHO experts produce health guidelines and standards, and help countries to address public health issues. WHO also supports and promotes health research. Through WHO, governments can jointly tackle global health problems and improve people’s well-being. It is responsible for providing leadership on global health matters, shaping the health research agenda, setting norms and standards, articulating evidence-based policy options, providing technical support to countries and monitoring and assessing health trends.


History

1. When diplomats met in San Francisco to form the United Nations in 1945, one
of the things they discussed was setting up a global health organization. WHO’s Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948 – a date we now celebrate every year as World Health Day.

2. Delegates from 53 of WHO’s 55 original member states came to the first World Health Assembly in June 1948. They decided that WHO’s top prioritieswould be malaria, women’s and children’s health, tuberculosis, venereal disease, nutrition andenvironmental sanitation – many of which we are still working on today. WHO’s work has since grown to also cover health problems that were not even known in 1948, including relatively new diseases such as HIV/AIDS.


Participation

1. 193 countries and two associate members are WHO’s membership. They meet every year at the World Health Assembly in Geneva to set policy for the Organization, approve the Organization’s budget, and every five years, to appoint the Director-General. Their work is supported by the 34-member Executive Board, which is elected by the Health Assembly. Six regional committees focus on health matters of a regional nature.

2. More than 8000 people from more than 150 countries work for the Organization in 147 country offices, six regional offices and at the headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
In addition to medical doctors, public health specialists, scientists and epidemiologists, WHO staff include people trained to manage administrative, financial, and information systems, as well as experts in the fields of health statistics, economics and emergency relief.

The role of WHO in public health
WHO fulfils its objectives through its core functions:

• providing leadership on matters critical to health and engaging in partnerships where joint action is needed;
• shaping the research agenda and stimulating the generation, translation and dissemination of valuable knowledge;
• setting norms and standards and promoting and monitoring their implementation;
• articulating ethical and evidence-based policy options;
• providing technical support, catalysing change, and building sustainable institutional capacity; and
• monitoring the health situation and assessing health trends.

The WHO agenda
1. Promoting development
2. Fostering health security
3. Strengthening health systems
4. Harnessing research, information and evidence
5. Enhancing partnerships
6. Improving performance

Partners of WHO
1. WHO and its Member States work with many partners, including UN agencies, donors, nongovernmental organizations, WHO collaborating centres and the private sector.


Achievement

1948
WHO took over the responsibility for the International Classification of Disease (ICD), which
dates back to the 1850s and was first known as the International List of Causes of Death. The ICD is used to classify diseases and other health problems and has become the international standard used for clinical and epidemiological purposes.

1952
- Dr Jonas Salk (US) develops the first successful polio vaccine

1952–1964
Global yaws control programme One of the first diseases to claim WHO’s attention was yaws, a crippling and disfiguring disease that afflicted some 50 million people in 1950. The global yaws control programme, fully operational between 1952-1964, used long-acting penicillin to treat yaws with one single injection. By 1965, the control programme had examined 300 million people in 46 countries and reduced global disease prevalence by more than 95%.

1967
South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard conducts the first heart transplant.

1974
The World Health Assembly adopts a resolution to create the Expanded Programme on
Immunization to bring basic vaccines to all the world’s children.


1979
The eradication of smallpox – a disease which had maimed and killed millions – in
the late 1970s is one of WHO’s proudest achievements. The campaign to eradicate
the deadly disease throughout the world was coordinated by WHO between 1967
and 1979. It was the first and so far the only time that a major infectious disease has
been eradicated

1983
Institut Pasteur (France) identifies HIV.

1988
Global Polio Eradication Initiative established Since its launch in 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has reduced the number of cases of polio by more than 99% – from more than 350 000 per year to 1956 in 2006. Spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary
International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF, it has immunized more than two billion children thanks to the mobilization of more than 20 million volunteers and health workers. As a result, five million children are today walking, who would otherwise have been paralysed, and more than 1.5 million childhood deaths have been averted. The goal is to eradicate polio worldwide so that no child will ever again be







2003
21 May 2003 was a historic day for global public health. After nearly four years of
intense negotiations, the World Health Assembly unanimously adopted WHO’s first
global public health treaty. The treaty is designed to reduce tobacco-related deaths
and disease around the world.

2003
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) first recognized and then controlled.

2004
Adoption of the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.

2005
World Health Assembly revises the International Health Regulations.