The World Health Organization (WHO)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organization, which was an agency of the League of Nations. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group.
The WHO's constitution states that its objective "is the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health." The flag features the Rod of Asclepius as a symbol for healing.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is one of the original agencies of the United Nations, its constitution formally coming into force on the first World Health Day, (7 April 1948), when it was ratified by the 26th member state. Jawaharlal Nehru, a major freedom fighter of India had given an opinion to start WHO. Prior to this its operations, as well as the remaining activities of the League of Nations Health Organization, were under the control of an Interim Commission following an International Health Conference in the summer of 1946. The transfer was authorized by a Resolution of the General Assembly. The epidemiological service of the French Office International d'Hygiène Publique was incorporated into the Interim Commission of the World Health Organization on 1 January 1947.

Activities

Apart from coordinating international efforts to control outbreaks of infectious disease, such as SARS, malaria, tuberculosis, influenza, and HIV/AIDS, the WHO also sponsors programs to prevent and treat such diseases. The WHO supports the development and distribution of safe and effective vaccines, pharmaceutical diagnostics, and drugs, such as through the Expanded Program on Immunization. After over two decades of fighting smallpox, the WHO declared in 1980 that the disease had been eradicated – the first disease in history to be eliminated by human effort. The WHO aims to eradicate polio within the next few years.
The organization develops and promotes the use of evidence-based tools, norms and standards to support Member States to inform health policy options. It oversees the implementation of the International Health Regulations, and publishes a series of medical classifications including the International Statistical Classification of Diseases (ICD), the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), and the International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI). The WHO regularly publishes a World Health Report including an expert assessment of a specific global health topic. The organization has published tools for monitoring the capacity of national health systems and health workforces to meet primary health care goals. The organization has endorsed the world's first official HIV/AIDS Toolkit for Zimbabwe (from 3 October 2006), making it an international standard.
In addition, the WHO carries out various health-related campaigns – for example, to boost the consumption of fruits and vegetables worldwide and to discourage tobacco use. Each year, the organization marks World Health Day focusing on a specific health promotion topic.
WHO conducts or supports health research in areas of communicable diseases, reproductive health, non-communicable conditions and injuries, neglected tropical diseases, health policy and systems, and other areas, as well as improving access to health research and literature in developing countries such as through the HINARI network. The organization relies on the expertise and experience of many world-renowned scientists and professionals to inform its work, such as the WHO Expert Committee on Biological Standardization, the WHO Expert Committee on Leprosy, and the WHO Study Group on Interprofessional Education & Collaborative Practice.
The WHO also promotes the development of capacities in Member States to use and produce research that addresses national needs, by bolstering national health research systems and promoting knowledge translation platforms such as the Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet). WHO and its regional offices are working to develop regional policies on research for health - the first one being the Pan American Health Organization/Regional Office for the Americas (PAHO/AMRO) that had its Policy on Research for Health approved in September 2009 by its 49th Directing Council Document CD 49.10.
The World Health Organization's suite of health studies is working to provide the needed health and well-being evidence through a variety of data collection platforms, including the World Health Survey covering 308,000 respondents aged 18+ years and 81,000 aged 50+ years from 70 countries, and the Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE) covering over 50,000 persons aged 50+ across almost 23 countries. The WHO Assessment Instrument for Mental Health Systems (WHO-AIMS), the WHO Quality of Life Instrument (WHOQOL), and the Service Availability Mapping (SAM) tool provide guidance for data collection in other health and health-related areas. Collaborative efforts between WHO and other agencies, such as through the Health Metrics Network, serve the normative functions of setting high research standards.
WHO has also worked on global initiatives in surgery such as the Global Initiative for Emergency and Essential Surgical Care and the Guidelines for Essential Trauma Care focused on access and quality. Safe Surgery Saves Lives addresses the patient safety in surgical care. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist is in current use worldwide in the effort to improve safety in surgical patients.

Main publications

• Bulletin of the World Health Organization
• Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal
• Human Resources for Health, journal published in collaboration with BioMed Central
• Pan American Journal of Public Health
• World Health Report, series of global health policy reports

Main international policy frameworks

• International Health Regulations
• International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes, adopted in 1981
• Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted in 2003
• Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, adopted in 2010