DETAIL ABOUT WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. It was established on 7 April 1948, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The WHO is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Its predecessor, the Health Organization, was an agency of the League of Nations.

The constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by 61 countries on 22 July 1946, with the first meeting of the World Health Assembly finishing on 24 July 1948. It incorporated the Office International d'Hygiène Publique and the League of Nations Health Organization. Since its creation, it has played a leading role in the eradication of smallpox. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, in particular HIV/AIDS, Ebola, malaria and tuberculosis; the mitigation of the effects of non-communicable diseases; sexual and reproductive health, development, and aging; nutrition, food security and healthy eating; occupational health; substance abuse; and driving the development of reporting, publications, and networking.

The WHO is responsible for the World Health Report, a leading international publication on health, the worldwide World Health Survey, and World Health Day (7 April of every year). The head of WHO is Margaret Chan.

The 2014/2015 proposed budget of the WHO is about US$4 billion.[1] About US$930 million are to be provided by member states with a further US$3 billion to be from voluntary contributions.[1

HistoryEstablishment

During the 1945 United Nations Conference on International Organization, Dr. Szeming Sze, a delegate from China, conferred with Norwegian and Brazilian delegates on creating an international health organization under the auspices of the new United Nations. After failing to get a resolution passed on the subject, Alger Hiss, the Secretary General of the conference, recommended using a declaration to establish such an organization. Dr. Sze and other delegates lobbied and a declaration passed calling for an international conference on health.[2] The use of the word "world", rather than "international", emphasized the truly global nature of what the organization was seeking to achieve.[3] The constitution of the World Health Organization was signed by all 51 countries of the United Nations, and by 10 other countries, on 22 July 1946.[4] It thus became the first specialised agency of the United Nations to which every member subscribed.[5] Its constitution formally came into force on the first World Health Day on 7 April 1948, when it was ratified by the 26th member state.[6] The first meeting of the World Health Assembly finished on 24 July 1948, having secured a budget of US$5 million (then GBP£1,250,000) for the 1949 year. Andrija Stampar was the Assembly's first president, and G. Brock Chisholm was appointed Director-General of WHO, having served as Executive Secretary during the planning stages.[3] Its first priorities were to control the spread of malaria, tuberculosis and sexually transmitted infections, and to improve maternal and child health, nutrition and environmental hygiene. Its first legislative act was concerning the compilation of accurate statistics on the spread and morbidity of disease. The logo of the World Health Organization features the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol for healing.

Operational history

Three former directors of the Global Smallpox Eradication Programme read the news that smallpox had been globally eradicated, 1980

IT established an epidemiological information service via telex in 1947, and by 1950 a mass tuberculosis inoculation drive (using the BCG vaccine) was under way. In 1955, the malaria eradication programme was launched, although it was later altered in objective. 1965 saw the first report on diabetes mellitus and the creation of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. WHO moved into its headquarters building in 1966. The Expanded Programme on Immunization was started in 1974, as was the control programme into onchocerciasis – an important partnership between the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and World Bank. In the following year, the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases was also launched. In 1976, the World Health Assembly voted to enact a resolution on Disability Prevention and Rehabilitation, with a focus on community-driven care. The first list of essential medicines was drawn up in 1977, and a year later the ambitious goal of "health for all" was declared. In 1986, WHO started its global programme on the growing problem of HIV/AIDS, followed two years later by additional attention on preventing discrimination against sufferers and UNAIDS was formed in 1996. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative was established in 1988.[8]

In 1958, Viktor Zhdanov, Deputy Minister of Health for the USSR, called on the World Health Assembly to undertake a global initiative to eradicate smallpox, resulting in Resolution WHA11.54.[9] At this point, 2 million people were dying from smallpox every year. In 1967, the World Health Organization intensified the global smallpox eradication by contributing $2.4 million annually to the effort and adopted a new disease surveillance method.[10][11] The initial problem the WHO team faced was inadequate reporting of smallpox cases. WHO established a network of consultants who assisted countries in setting up surveillance and containment activities.[12] The WHO also helped contain the last European outbreak in Yugoslavia in 1972.[13] After over two decades of fighting smallpox, the WHO declared in 1979 that the disease had been eradicated – the first disease in history to be eliminated by human effort.[14]