World Health Organization

:For other meanings of the acronym 'WHO', see WHO (disambiguation)

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The World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations, acting as a coordinating authority on international public health, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. WHO was established by the UN on April 7, 1948. The current Director General is Lee Jong-wook. The WHO inherited much of the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organization (HO), which had been an agency of the League of Nations.

Related Topics:
United Nations - Public health - Geneva - Switzerland - April 7 - 1948 - Lee Jong-wook - League of Nations

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The WHO's constitution states that its mission "is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health". Its major task is to combat disease, especially key infectious diseases. As well as coordinating international efforts to monitor outbreaks of infectious disease such as SARS, malaria, and AIDS, it also has programmes to combat such diseases, by developing and distributing vaccines. After years of fighting smallpox, WHO declared in 1979 that the disease had been eradicated - the first disease in history to be completely eliminated by deliberate human design. WHO is nearing success in developing vaccines against malaria and schistosomiasis and aims to eradicate polio within the next few years.

Related Topics:
SARS - Malaria - AIDS - Smallpox - Schistosomiasis - Polio

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The WHO also compiles the widely followed International Classification of Diseases (ICD). The tenth revision of the ICD was released in 1992 and a searchable version is available online on the WHO website, although it is not comprehensive. Later revisions are indexed and available in hardcopy versions. The WHO does not permit simultaneous classification in two separate areas.

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The constitution of WHO defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not consisting only of the absence of disease or infirmity. In addition to its work in eradicating disease, the WHO also carries out campaigns — for example, to boost consumption of vegetables worldwide, or to discourage tobacco consumption – and conducts research: for instance, into whether or not the electromagnetic field surrounding cell phones has a negative influence on health. Some of this work can be controversial, such as the April 2003 WHO report which recommended that sugar be no more than 10% of a healthy diet, which led to lobbying by the sugar industry against this recommendation http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,940287,00.html.

Related Topics:
Vegetables - Tobacco - Electromagnetic field - Cell phones - Sugar

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In addition to the WHO's stated mission, international treaties assign the organization a variety of responsibilities. For instance, the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances call on the WHO to issue binding scientific and medical assessments of psychoactive drugs and recommend how they should be regulated. In this way, the WHO acts as a check on the power of the drug policymaking Commission on Narcotic Drugs.

Related Topics:
Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs - Convention on Psychotropic Substances - Commission on Narcotic Drugs

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