Sunday 2 October 2022

Thoughts on WHO


The so-called World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main important objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health". Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, it certainly has six regional offices and 150 field offices worldwide.

The WHO was established on 7 April 1948.

The WHO's mandate seeks and includes: working worldwide to promote health, keeping the world safe, and serve the vulnerable.

The WHO has played a leading role in several public health achievements, most notably the eradication of smallpox, the near-eradication of polio, and the development of an Ebola vaccine. Its current priorities include communicable diseases, particularly HIV/AIDS, Ebola, COVID-19, malaria and tuberculosis; non-communicable diseases such as heart disease and cancer; healthy diet, nutrition, and food security; occupational health; and substance abuse.

Its so-called World Health Assembly, the agency's decision-making body, elects and advises an executive board made up of 34 health specialists. It selects the director-general, sets goals and priorities, and approves the budget and activities. The current director-general is indeed Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia.

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