The World Health Organization (WHO) is an branch of the United Nations that focues on public health. It was founded in 1948, is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has over 60 countries as signatory members of its constitution.
The WHO was established amidst a push for mass tuberculosis vaccination and has since grown to address nearly any imaginable health concern in the world. Among this many focii, the WHO addresses the following matters of public health on an international scale:
- Communicable Disease: Diseases such as AIDS/HIV, Malaria, and Tuberculosis
- Non-Communicable Disease: Inclusive of mental disease, violence, physical injury, and visual impairments.
- Environmental Health: Air, water, and soil pollution all fall under the watchful eye of the WHO
- Lifestyle: Developing programs to reduce morbidity and mortality due to exposure to risk factors such as tobacco and alcohol. Also developing programs to educate and improve health during key developmental periods such as early childhood.
- Surgery & Trauma Care: Maintains a Surgical Checklist to help promote advances and best practices in fields of essential and emergency surgical care.
- Emergency Relief Work: Works to address natural and man-made disasters and their impact on human health. Includes the outbreak of disease, disaster relief from hurricanes and flooding.
- Global Health Policy: “to address the underlying social and economic determinants of health through policies and programmes that enhance health equity and integrate pro-poor, gender-responsive, and human rights-based approaches” and secondly “to promote a healthier environment, intensify primary prevention and influence public policies in all sectors so as to address the root causes of environmental threats to health”
The WHO is partnered with several influential organizations such as the World Bank to better achieve the goals of both parties. They also organization thought leaders, professionals, and academics from health-related fields to contribute to growing bodies of work focused on promoting human health.
All included, as of 2016, the WHO has 194 member States all of which have ratified a treaty known as the Constitution of the World Health Organization. There are a handful of other State classifications, such as observer, that have been granted to non-ratifying countries.
The WHO establishes and maintains direction for certain research and health-focused institutions such as the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). These initiatives help organize and collect data, research, and funding to pursue more specific goals than those outlined in the Constitution of the WHO.
The WHO has regional headquarters n Africa, Europe, South-East Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Western Pacific areas, as well as in Washington D.C., USA. These locations allow the WHO to integrate with regional policy to more effectively address health-related issues while easily coordinating with local and State members.