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World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations (UN) that funds and organizes programs to promote human health worldwide. WHO's primary roles concern eradicating disease (especially infectious diseases and epidemics), using nutrition and medicine to increase health, and aiding developing nations to improve the physical welfare of their citizens. The main goal of WHO is to ensure that all human beings have access to quality health care of every variety, whether it is provided by WHO itself or by other health organizations and practitioners, and where health includes social and mental as well as physical well-being. WHO was established in 1948 largely on the model of the Health Organization, an agency of the League of Nations.

Organizational Structure

The chief decision-making body of WHO is the World Health Assembly which meets once a year. The assembly is made up of delegates from most participating nations: The exceptions are those nations that do not belong to the UN and so are allowed to register only as associate members of WHO. Although the assembly decides the goals and general policies of WHO, an executive board defines its agenda, reviews its decisions, and gives effect to its policies. The executive board consists of thirty-two members, each of whom is deemed knowledgeable in the fields of medicine, nutrition, and disease, and each of whom serves a three-year term. The Director-General of WHO is nominated by this executive board and appointed by the assembly for a five-year period. The Director General reviews and approves the program presented by the Assembly. The day-to-day running of WHO is undertaken by a Secretariat consisting of eight thousand technical, administrative, and support staff.

WHO is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its member states are divided into six regions with considerable autonomy. Each region has a regional office headed by a regional director who is confirmed by the executive board after having been elected by the local regional committee. The local regional committees consist of the heads of the health departments of all member states within that region. They are responsible for putting into effect in their region the programs designed by the assembly.

Although the institutional organization of WHO derives largely from its member states, it has established a Civil Society Initiative to formulate arrangements between WHO and nongovernmental agencies such as charity foundations and the pharmaceutical industry. Such arrangements are meant to lead to collaborative networks in the financing and provision of health programs.

Activities and Programs

One important activity of WHO is to lead campaigns based on information, finances, and health care against specific diseases. Its first campaign, the eradication of smallpox, was declared successful in 1979—the first time in history that a disease had been eradicated entirely by human action. WHO has also devised campaigns to counter plague, yellow fever, polio, measles, malaria, and also malnutrition and the consumption of tobacco. Recently WHO has begun campaigning against whooping cough and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

WHO also seeks to spread scientific information about health related issues. Of special note is the International Pharmacopoeia, which provides procedure recommendations, dosage information, and item quality know-how on legalized medical drugs. WHO first published International Pharmacopoeia in 1979. It is used by many member states when they compose drug-related laws and legislations.

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