World Health Organization’s (WHO) first Constitutional function is to act as the directing and coordinating authority on all international health work. This function permits WHO’s Member States to identify collectively the priority health problems throughout the world. WHO decides the collective health policies, device strategies to deal with them and try to attain them. The WHO also has specific responsibilities for establishing and promoting international standards in the field of health, which comprise the following broad areas:
(1) Prevention and control of specific diseases:
Almost all communicable diseases are or have been at sometime the subject of WHO activities. The global eradication of small pox is the brightest example of international health cooperation. With the same energy and commitment with which WHO eradicated smallpox, it is now directing the global battle against AIDS.
An important activity of WHO is epidemiological surveillance of communicable diseases. The WHO collects and disseminates epidemiological information on diseases subject to international Health Regulations through an Automatic Telex Reply Service (ATRS) and the “Weekly Epidemiological Record” (WER). The “Weekly Epidemiological Record” (WER) contains more complete details and brief reviews of communicable diseases of international importance. Anyone can also make use of the “WHO Emergency Scheme for Epidemics” whenever necessary. The aim of international Health Regulations is to ensure maximum security against international spread of diseases with the minimum interference with world traffic. This means if a communicable disease is absent in an area e.g. yellow fever absent in Asia, so when a traveler is visiting Asia from yellow fever endemic area he require to be vaccinated against yellow fever.
The WHO also pays attention in such diseases as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, genetic disorders, mental disorders, drug addiction and dental diseases. The WHO also give importance to vector biology and control, quality control of drugs and biological products, drug evaluation and monitoring, immunology and health laboratory technology.
Immunization against common diseases of childhood (Expanded Programme on Immunization) is now a priority programme of WHO.
(2) Development of comprehensive heath services:
WHO’s most important single function is to promote and support national health policy development and the development of comprehensive national health programmes. The broad field covers a wide variety of activities such as organizing health systems based on primary health care, the development of health manpower and utilization, building of long-term national capability, particularly in the areas of health infrastructure development, and managerial capabilities (including monitoring and evaluation) and health services research. Appropriate Technology for Health (ATH) is another new programme launched by the WHO to encourage self sufficiency in solving health problems. This is part of WHO’s efforts to build up primary health care.
(3) Environmental Health:
Promotion of environmental health is an impotent activity of WHO. It advises governments on national programmes for the provision of basic sanitary services. WHO also directs about protection of the quality of air, water and food, health conditions of work, radiation protection and early identification of new hazards originating from new technological developments. A number of programmes have been developed such as the ‘WHO Environmental Health Criteria Programme’ for improving environmental health.
(4) Bio-Medical Research:
The WHO does not itself do research, but coordinates,finance and stimulate research work. It has established a worldwide network of WHO collaborating centres, besides awarding grants to research workers and research institutions for promoting research. There are Regional Advisory Committees on health research, which decides regional health research priorities. A Global committee deals with policy issues of global importance. Six tropical diseases (malaria, schistosomiasis, trypanosomiasis, filariasis, leishmaniasis and leprosy) are the target of the WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases to develop new tools, strengthen research institutions and training of workers in the countries affected.
(5) Health statistics:
From its days of 1947, WHO has been concerned with the dissemination of a wide variety of morbidity and mortality statistics relating to health problems. The data is published in the (i) weekly Epidemiological Record (ii) quarterly Worlds Health Statistics and (iii) Annual World Health Statistics. Anyone who is interested in current data may obtain it from the Chief Statistician, Dissemination of Statistical Information, WHO, Geneva. In order to standardize statistics from different countries WHO publishes ‘International Classification of Diseases’ which is brought up to date every 10 years. Assistance is also given to countries in the improvement of their medical records and in the planning and operating national health information systems.
(6) Family health:
Family health is one of the major activities of WHO since 1970, and is broadly subdivided into maternal and child health care, human reproduction, nutrition and health education. The main concern is the improvement of the quality of life of the family as a unit.
(7) Health Literature and Information:
WHO acts as a clearing house for information on health problems. Its publications comprise hundreds of titles on a wide variety of health subjects. The WHO library is one of the satellite centers of the Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLARS) of the USA. It is fully computerized indexing system covering the whole of medicine on an international basis. The WHO has also a public information service both at headquarters and each of the six regional offices.
(8) Cooperation with other organizations:
WHO collaborates with the UN and with the other specialized agencies like UNICEF and FAO and maintains various degrees of working relationships. Besides, WHO has also established relations with a number of international governmental organizations.
Tags: Epidemiological surveillance, International Classification of Diseases, Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System (MEDLA, Yellow fever
