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Working for health
An introduction to the WORLD HELTH ORGANIZATION
Welcome to the world health organization
Working for
Some of the work done by WHO is visible and familiar: the response teams sent to contain outbreaks, the emergency assistance to people affected by disasters, or the mass immunization campaigns that protect the world’s children from killer diseases.
Other work is visible because the diseases being addressed – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria – have such a high profile for global health.
The work of WHO is also visible in statistics, as we chart changing trends and sound the alarm when needed. As one example, we need to be concerned about the sharp rise of chronic diseases. Long thought to be the companions of affluent societies, diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are now occurring in larger numbers and at an earlier age throughout the developing world.
Some activities undertaken by WHO are largely invisible, quietly protecting the health of every person on this planet, every day. By assigning a single international name to drugs,
WHO helps ensure that a prescription filled abroad is what the doctor ordered back home. Our standards help protect the safety of everyone’s food and the quality of medicines and vaccines. When pollution in air or water reaches a dangerous level, it is WHO standards that are used as the measure.
Our greatest concern must always rest with disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. These groups are often hidden, living in remote rural areas or shantytowns and having little political voice. WHO works to make these people – and their unmet health needs – more visible and thus worthy of our priority concern. In addressing the needs of these populations, we work together with governments and a host of agencies, foundations, nongovernmental Organizations, and representatives of the private sector and civil society.
One statistic from these vulnerable groups stands out as especially tragic: more than
500,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy. To reverse this trend, WHO and its partners must address complex problems that have their roots in social and economic conditions and the failure of health services to reach the poor. These same problems account for many other needless deaths.
All of our efforts – and their prospects for success – are greatly aided by today’s
Unprecedented interest in health as a route to development, accompanied by equally
Unprecedented energy, initiatives, and funds.
This brochure provides some highlights from our broad range of activities – both high-profile and behind-the-scenes – that are working to improve world health.
What is the World
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system. WHO experts produce health guidelines and standards, and help countries to address public health issues. WHO also supports and promotes health research. Through WHO, governments can jointly tackle global health problems and improve people’s well-being.
193 countries and two associate members are WHO’s membership. They meet every year at the World Health Assembly in Geneva to set policy for the Organization, approve the Organization’s budget, and every five years, to appoint the Director-General. Their work is supported by the 34-member Executive Board, which is elected by the Health Assembly. Six regional committees focus on health matters of a regional nature.
More about WHO
What is the World The World Health Assembly.
WHO’s 193 member countries meet to decide policy for improving health.
Who are our partners in health? WHO and its Member States work with many partners, including UN agencies, donors, nongovernmental organizations, WHO
Collaborating centers and the private sector. Only through new ways of working and innovative partnerships can we make a difference and achieve our goals.
people
Last but not least, WHO are people? Over 8000 public health experts including doctors, epidemiologists, scientists, managers, administrators and other professionals from all over the world work for WHO Geneva, Switzerland.in 147 country offices, six regional offices and at the headquarters in
What are our A short history
When diplomats met in San Francisco to form the United Nations in 1945, one
of the things they discussed was setting up a global health organization. WHO’s
Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948 – a date we now celebrate every year as World Health Day. Delegates from 53 of WHO’s 55 original member states came to the first World Health Assembly in June 1948. They decided that WHO’s top priorities would be malaria, women’s and children’s health, tuberculosis, venereal disease, nutrition and environmental sanitation – many of which we are still working on today. WHO’s work has since grown to also cover health problems that were not even known in 1948, including relatively new diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
1948 International Classification of Disease
WHO took over the responsibility for the International Classification of Disease (ICD), which dates back to the 1850s and was first known as the International List of Causes of Death. The ICD is used to classify diseases and other health problems
and has become the international standard used for clinical and epidemiological purposes.
1952 Dr Jonas Salk (US) develops the first successful polio vaccine.
1952–1964 Global yaws control programme
One of the first diseases to claim WHO’s attention was yaws, a crippling and disfiguring disease that afflicted some 50 million people in 1950. The global yaws control programme, fully operational between
1952-1964, used long-acting penicillin to treat yaws with one single injection. By 1965, the control programme had examined 300 million people in 46 countries and reduced global disease prevalence by more than 95%.
1967 South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard conducts the first heart transplant.
1974 The World Health Assembly adopts a resolution to create the Expanded Programme on Immunization to bring basic vaccines to all the world’s children.
1974 Onchocerciasis control programmme
WHO worked for 30 years to eliminate onchocerciasis – or river blindness – from West Africa. 600 000 cases of blindness have been prevented and 18 million children spared from the disease. Thousands of farmers have been able to reclaim 25 million
hectares of fertile river land that had been abandoned because of the risk of infection.
1977 The first Essential Medicines
List appeared in 1977, two years after the World Health Assembly introduced the concepts of “essential drugs” and “national drug policy”. 156 countries today
have a national list of essential medicines.
Achievements?
1978 The International Conference on Primary Health Care, in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan
sets the historic goal of “Health for All” – to which WHO continues to aspire.
1979 Eradication of smallpox
The eradication of smallpox – a disease which had maimed and killed millions – in
the late 1970s is one of WHO’s proudest achievements. The campaign to eradicate
the deadly disease throughout the world was coordinated by WHO between 1967
and 1979. It was the first and so far the only time that a major infectious disease has
been eradicated. (Mr Ali Moallin, from Somalia, was the last person known to
be infected with smallpox)
1983 Institut Pasteur (France) identifies HIV.
1988 Global Polio Eradication Initiative established
Since its launch in 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has reduced the number of cases of polio by more than 99% – from more than 350 000 per year to 1956 in 2006. Spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF, it has immunized more than two billion children, thanks to the mobilization of more than 20 million volunteers and health workers. As a result, five million children are today
walking, who would otherwise have been paralysed, and more than 1.5 million childhood deaths have been averted. The goal is to eradicate polio worldwide so that no child will ever again be paralyzed by this disease.
2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) first recognized and then controlled.
2003 WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
21 May 2003 was a historic day for global public health. After nearly four years of
intense negotiations, the World Health Assembly unanimously adopted WHO’s first
global public health treaty. The treaty is designed to reduce tobacco-related deaths
and disease around the world.
2004 Adoption of the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.
2005 World Health Assembly revises the International Health Regulations.
WHO’s people bring unparalleled expertise, experience and dedication
to global public health. They are WHO’s most valued asset.
Nearly 8000 people from more than 150 countries work for the Organization.
In addition to medical doctors, public health specialists, researchers and
Epidemiologists, WHO staff include administrative, financial, and information
Systems specialists, as well as experts in the fields of health statistics, economics
and emergency relie
WHO in action: the example of HIV
WHO staff local, regional and global.
WHO has dedicated HIV/AIDS staff working in over 85 countries worldwide. They advise Ministries of Health on technical issues and provide assistance in scaling-up essential prevention, treatment and care services through the health sector. They work with other players including other UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations and affected communities to help plan, implement and monitor programmes. These country teams also help with advocacy and fundraising efforts in countries.
Regional teams Regional HIV/AIDS teams in each of WHO’s six regional offices are the first point of contact for country offices that need extra technical or financial help. Regional offices also give special attention to adapting global HIV/AIDS policies to fit specific needs in their regions.
For example,
The response to HIV/AIDS requires different interventions in sub-Saharan Africa, where the
epidemic is largely spread by heterosexual sex, from those in eastern Europe, where injecting drug use is the primary mode of HIV transmission.
Headquarters team
The HIV team at WHO headquarters in Geneva supports and builds on all of these regional
and local efforts. It sets global policies and standards, facilitates technical support to
regions and countries, monitors and publicizes progress, and helps mobilize political and
financial support.
Enhancing global
A disease outbreak can cause a crisis for a country, for an entire region or even the world. Conflicts or natural disasters can also have repercussions that affect millions of people. WHO works through relief and restoration to save lives and reduce the impact of crises on people’s health?
International cooperation helped to detect and stop the SARS virus before it gained a real foothold in the world. Always on the alert, scanning and following up on rumours, WHO and its partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network prepare for outbreaks of all kinds. This includes preparing for a new pandemic influenza. Over the past century, influenza and other outbreaks have killed tens of millions of people and seriously damaged economies.
In preparation for possible epidemics and other crises that can affect
health, WHO has pre-positioned items such as emergency medical kits in
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Health Action in Crises
“The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center relies extensively on WHO guidelines
and other health-related publications to keep participants in our public
health training courses as well-informed as possible as they plan their health
programmes and interventions.”
– Janette Lauza-Ugsang, Project Manager,
The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Thailand
Health Action in Crises
As many as two billion people around the world face health threats every day.
People in more than 45 countries are currently experiencing emergencies as a result of natural disasters, economic crises, or conflict. The Health Action in Crises team works with Member States and other partners to minimize suffering and death in all crisis situations – whether they are highly publicized, such as the Tsunami in South Asia, or hidden and forgotten, such as the ongoing conflict in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. WHO works in countries to help national authorities and communities to prepare by strengthening overall capacity to manage all types of crises; to respond by ensuring effective and timely action to address public health priorities; to recover by ensuring that local health systems are functioning; and to mitigate against the effects of crises on public health.
International Health Regulations
One critical tool in the fight against the global spread of infectious disease is the International Health Regulations (IHR). Negotiated by WHO’s Member States, the IHR establish rules that countries must follow to identify disease outbreaks and stop them from spreading.
In 2005, the IHR were expanded to cover new diseases such as SARS, and new strains of influenza, along with established diseases such as polio. Coming into force June 2007, the revised IHR ask countries to build up their capacity to prevent, protect against and control disease outbreaks. The new rules also give WHO a more direct
role in investigating and stopping outbreaks. WHO is working closely with countries to ensure they have the skills and people in place to carry out this work and to provide training and expertise where it is needed.
Preventing chronic diseases
Changes in diet, physical activity, and tobacco use in both rich and poor countries have dramatically increased the risks of chronic diseases such as heart disease,
stroke, cancer and diabetes. More than half of all deaths worldwide each year – about 35 million out of 58 million are caused by chronic disease.
Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health
WHO’s Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health is meant to help fight heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and obesity-related conditions. The strategy encourages people to be more physically active and eat healthier diets.
Tobacco use kills about five million people every year. A growing number of countries are giving people a better chance at a healthy life by signing up to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – the first ever global health treaty negotiated by WHO. The treaty is now in force, and sets international standards on
tobacco control measures such as tobacco prices and tax increases, advertising and sponsorship, product warning labels, smuggling and second-hand smoke.
Myth: Chronic disease affects only the wealthy
Reality: Four of every five people who die of chronic disease live in low and
middle-income countries.
Myth: Chronic disease Mainly affects older people
Reality: One quarter of the men and women who die each year are under age
60. Chronic disease cuts lives short, takes mothers and fathers away from their
children and costs economies billions of dollars.
The good news is that people can largely prevent and control chronic disease by
reducing three risks – tobacco use, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. As
a top priority, WHO – together with countries, the private sector, civil society and
others – is working on several key initiatives to stop the growing chronic disease
epidemic.
Fact: Global deaths from chronic disease are expected to rise by 17% worldwide over the next ten years.
Health at the heart of the millennium development goals
At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, 191 countries set themselves the ambitious task of tackling poverty and ill-health and improving people’s lives by 2015. Derived from the Millennium Declaration, these tasks are what became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Health is at the heart of this agenda. Three of the eight goals – cutting child deaths, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases – are directly about health. Better health is also key to the other goals, such as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving environmental sustainability.
Goal 4
Cut child deaths
Close to 11 million children under five die every year.
Almost 90% of all child deaths are attributable to just six conditions: diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, malaria, measles, neonatal causes and pneumonia. Malnutrition increases the risk of dying – over half of all child deaths occur in children who are underweight. Some countries have made progress, but in 14 countries, 10 of them in Africa, more young children are dying now than in 1990.
In Niger and elsewhere, WHO works with countries to dramatically reduce the appalling rates of child deaths with
technical advice and policy support – all with the goal of cutting child deaths by two thirds.
Goal 5
Improve maternal health
More than half a million women die each year in pregnancy and
childbirth.
Most of them die because there is not enough skilled regular and emergency care. More and more women have access to skilled birth care in some parts of the world, such as South-East Asia and North Africa. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 16 women have the risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth over a lifetime, compared with about 1 in 2800 women in the rich world.
WHO provides guidelines for safe pregnancy and childbirth and encourages countries to use them, with the aim of cutting maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015, saving close to 400 000 women’s lives every year.
Goal 8
Develop a global partnership for development
WHO is working to ensure people have universal access to life-saving drugs
Goal 7
Ensure environmental sustainability
Health is closely linked with all the MDG s
Ensuring environmental sustainability is essential for improving people’s health – through the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we grow. In the same way, the goal of eradicating extreme poverty means addressing diseases that cripple workers, ravage families and kill children before they can contribute to a better future.
Goal 6:
Combat HIV /AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
HIV /AIDS – Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV /AIDS
This year, five million people will be newly infected with HIV and more than three million people will die of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.Today, just one in five people at risk of HIV has access to the information and tools they need to prevent it, and millions are in urgent need of antiretroviral medicines. WHO is working with countries:
• To prevent people becoming infected with HIV – helping them change their behaviours to reduce HIV risks and making prevention commodities, such as condoms and sterile injecting equipment, widely available.
• To expand the availability of treatment. WHO advises on the most effective HIV/AIDS treatments. The WHO AIDS Medicines and Diagnostic Service helps countries procure and deliver affordable, quality health supplies
• To provide the best care for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. WHO promotes greater involvement of communities and primary health care services in care delivery?
Tuberculosis
The global TB epidemic causes nearly nine million cases of disease and kills about
two million people each year. The good news is that the prevalence of TB cases has dropped by 20% since 1990 and all regions of the world are on track to meet the MDG targets of halving TB prevalence and deaths by 2015 – except sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe. The bad news is that the TB situation in Africa is now so grave that it was declared a WHO emergency by African Ministers of Health.
WHO – in collaboration with the Stop TB Partnership – leads the global drive to expand the use of DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy to fight TB. The DOTS Strategy can cure up to 95% of patients, even in the poorest countries, and is now being used in 187 countries. WHO is also working to adapt DOTS to meet the special challenges of multidrug-resistant TB and co-infection with TB and HIV. HIV is driving the TB epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. In China between 1990 and 2000, the prevalence of pulmonary TB fell by one third in the part of the country covered by DOTS services, compared to the other part of the country not using DOTS.
Malaria
Target: Halt by 2015 and have begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Malaria kills more than one million people a year – most of them children under five in Africa. In fact, on average a child in Africa dies every 30 seconds from a malaria infection caused by the bite of a mosquito.WHO urges four main strategies to tackle malaria:
• prevention, through protection against mosquito bites;
• rapid treatment with effective anti-malarial medicines;
• a special effort to protect pregnant women and young children;
• pre-empting epidemics by detecting them and acting swiftly to stop them.
WHO’s target, and that of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, is to cut malaria by half by 2010, with the goal of reaching the MDG target by 2015.
In KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, cases of malaria plummeted by a remarkable 90% between 2000 and 2004. This was due to a combination of political commitment, health education in schools and on the radio, involvement of traditional leaders, community groups, NGOs and industry and a government-led programme of indoor spraying with insecticides. The lesson is that success is possible with the right strategy and political will.
WHO is working to ensure that everyone has access to quality health care?
In many countries, there is little money available to spend on health. This results in inadequate hospitals and clinics, a short supply of essential medicines and equipment, and a critical shortage of health workers. Worse, in some parts of the world, large numbers of health workers are dying from the very diseases which they are trying to prevent and treat. WHO works with countries to help them plan, educate and manage the health workforce, for example, by advising on policies to recruit and retain people working in health.
In many countries, particularly in Africa, the shortage of health workers is a crisis. Health workers are dying; they are seeking other jobs because of poor working conditions; they are moving from rural to urban areas; or migrating to other countries that pay better.
An introduction to the WORLD HELTH ORGANIZATION
Welcome to the world health organization
Working for
Some of the work done by WHO is visible and familiar: the response teams sent to contain outbreaks, the emergency assistance to people affected by disasters, or the mass immunization campaigns that protect the world’s children from killer diseases.
Other work is visible because the diseases being addressed – HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria – have such a high profile for global health.
The work of WHO is also visible in statistics, as we chart changing trends and sound the alarm when needed. As one example, we need to be concerned about the sharp rise of chronic diseases. Long thought to be the companions of affluent societies, diseases such as heart disease, cancer, and diabetes are now occurring in larger numbers and at an earlier age throughout the developing world.
Some activities undertaken by WHO are largely invisible, quietly protecting the health of every person on this planet, every day. By assigning a single international name to drugs,
WHO helps ensure that a prescription filled abroad is what the doctor ordered back home. Our standards help protect the safety of everyone’s food and the quality of medicines and vaccines. When pollution in air or water reaches a dangerous level, it is WHO standards that are used as the measure.
Our greatest concern must always rest with disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. These groups are often hidden, living in remote rural areas or shantytowns and having little political voice. WHO works to make these people – and their unmet health needs – more visible and thus worthy of our priority concern. In addressing the needs of these populations, we work together with governments and a host of agencies, foundations, nongovernmental Organizations, and representatives of the private sector and civil society.
One statistic from these vulnerable groups stands out as especially tragic: more than
500,000 women die each year from complications of pregnancy. To reverse this trend, WHO and its partners must address complex problems that have their roots in social and economic conditions and the failure of health services to reach the poor. These same problems account for many other needless deaths.
All of our efforts – and their prospects for success – are greatly aided by today’s
Unprecedented interest in health as a route to development, accompanied by equally
Unprecedented energy, initiatives, and funds.
This brochure provides some highlights from our broad range of activities – both high-profile and behind-the-scenes – that are working to improve world health.
What is the World
The World Health Organization (WHO) is the directing and coordinating authority on international health within the United Nations’ system. WHO experts produce health guidelines and standards, and help countries to address public health issues. WHO also supports and promotes health research. Through WHO, governments can jointly tackle global health problems and improve people’s well-being.
193 countries and two associate members are WHO’s membership. They meet every year at the World Health Assembly in Geneva to set policy for the Organization, approve the Organization’s budget, and every five years, to appoint the Director-General. Their work is supported by the 34-member Executive Board, which is elected by the Health Assembly. Six regional committees focus on health matters of a regional nature.
More about WHO
What is the World The World Health Assembly.
WHO’s 193 member countries meet to decide policy for improving health.
Who are our partners in health? WHO and its Member States work with many partners, including UN agencies, donors, nongovernmental organizations, WHO
Collaborating centers and the private sector. Only through new ways of working and innovative partnerships can we make a difference and achieve our goals.
people
Last but not least, WHO are people? Over 8000 public health experts including doctors, epidemiologists, scientists, managers, administrators and other professionals from all over the world work for WHO Geneva, Switzerland.in 147 country offices, six regional offices and at the headquarters in
What are our A short history
When diplomats met in San Francisco to form the United Nations in 1945, one
of the things they discussed was setting up a global health organization. WHO’s
Constitution came into force on 7 April 1948 – a date we now celebrate every year as World Health Day. Delegates from 53 of WHO’s 55 original member states came to the first World Health Assembly in June 1948. They decided that WHO’s top priorities would be malaria, women’s and children’s health, tuberculosis, venereal disease, nutrition and environmental sanitation – many of which we are still working on today. WHO’s work has since grown to also cover health problems that were not even known in 1948, including relatively new diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
1948 International Classification of Disease
WHO took over the responsibility for the International Classification of Disease (ICD), which dates back to the 1850s and was first known as the International List of Causes of Death. The ICD is used to classify diseases and other health problems
and has become the international standard used for clinical and epidemiological purposes.
1952 Dr Jonas Salk (US) develops the first successful polio vaccine.
1952–1964 Global yaws control programme
One of the first diseases to claim WHO’s attention was yaws, a crippling and disfiguring disease that afflicted some 50 million people in 1950. The global yaws control programme, fully operational between
1952-1964, used long-acting penicillin to treat yaws with one single injection. By 1965, the control programme had examined 300 million people in 46 countries and reduced global disease prevalence by more than 95%.
1967 South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard conducts the first heart transplant.
1974 The World Health Assembly adopts a resolution to create the Expanded Programme on Immunization to bring basic vaccines to all the world’s children.
1974 Onchocerciasis control programmme
WHO worked for 30 years to eliminate onchocerciasis – or river blindness – from West Africa. 600 000 cases of blindness have been prevented and 18 million children spared from the disease. Thousands of farmers have been able to reclaim 25 million
hectares of fertile river land that had been abandoned because of the risk of infection.
1977 The first Essential Medicines
List appeared in 1977, two years after the World Health Assembly introduced the concepts of “essential drugs” and “national drug policy”. 156 countries today
have a national list of essential medicines.
Achievements?
1978 The International Conference on Primary Health Care, in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan
sets the historic goal of “Health for All” – to which WHO continues to aspire.
1979 Eradication of smallpox
The eradication of smallpox – a disease which had maimed and killed millions – in
the late 1970s is one of WHO’s proudest achievements. The campaign to eradicate
the deadly disease throughout the world was coordinated by WHO between 1967
and 1979. It was the first and so far the only time that a major infectious disease has
been eradicated. (Mr Ali Moallin, from Somalia, was the last person known to
be infected with smallpox)
1983 Institut Pasteur (France) identifies HIV.
1988 Global Polio Eradication Initiative established
Since its launch in 1988, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative has reduced the number of cases of polio by more than 99% – from more than 350 000 per year to 1956 in 2006. Spearheaded by national governments, WHO, Rotary International, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and UNICEF, it has immunized more than two billion children, thanks to the mobilization of more than 20 million volunteers and health workers. As a result, five million children are today
walking, who would otherwise have been paralysed, and more than 1.5 million childhood deaths have been averted. The goal is to eradicate polio worldwide so that no child will ever again be paralyzed by this disease.
2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) first recognized and then controlled.
2003 WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
21 May 2003 was a historic day for global public health. After nearly four years of
intense negotiations, the World Health Assembly unanimously adopted WHO’s first
global public health treaty. The treaty is designed to reduce tobacco-related deaths
and disease around the world.
2004 Adoption of the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.
2005 World Health Assembly revises the International Health Regulations.
WHO’s people bring unparalleled expertise, experience and dedication
to global public health. They are WHO’s most valued asset.
Nearly 8000 people from more than 150 countries work for the Organization.
In addition to medical doctors, public health specialists, researchers and
Epidemiologists, WHO staff include administrative, financial, and information
Systems specialists, as well as experts in the fields of health statistics, economics
and emergency relie
WHO in action: the example of HIV
WHO staff local, regional and global.
WHO has dedicated HIV/AIDS staff working in over 85 countries worldwide. They advise Ministries of Health on technical issues and provide assistance in scaling-up essential prevention, treatment and care services through the health sector. They work with other players including other UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations and affected communities to help plan, implement and monitor programmes. These country teams also help with advocacy and fundraising efforts in countries.
Regional teams Regional HIV/AIDS teams in each of WHO’s six regional offices are the first point of contact for country offices that need extra technical or financial help. Regional offices also give special attention to adapting global HIV/AIDS policies to fit specific needs in their regions.
For example,
The response to HIV/AIDS requires different interventions in sub-Saharan Africa, where the
epidemic is largely spread by heterosexual sex, from those in eastern Europe, where injecting drug use is the primary mode of HIV transmission.
Headquarters team
The HIV team at WHO headquarters in Geneva supports and builds on all of these regional
and local efforts. It sets global policies and standards, facilitates technical support to
regions and countries, monitors and publicizes progress, and helps mobilize political and
financial support.
Enhancing global
A disease outbreak can cause a crisis for a country, for an entire region or even the world. Conflicts or natural disasters can also have repercussions that affect millions of people. WHO works through relief and restoration to save lives and reduce the impact of crises on people’s health?
International cooperation helped to detect and stop the SARS virus before it gained a real foothold in the world. Always on the alert, scanning and following up on rumours, WHO and its partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network prepare for outbreaks of all kinds. This includes preparing for a new pandemic influenza. Over the past century, influenza and other outbreaks have killed tens of millions of people and seriously damaged economies.
In preparation for possible epidemics and other crises that can affect
health, WHO has pre-positioned items such as emergency medical kits in
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo.
Health Action in Crises
“The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center relies extensively on WHO guidelines
and other health-related publications to keep participants in our public
health training courses as well-informed as possible as they plan their health
programmes and interventions.”
– Janette Lauza-Ugsang, Project Manager,
The Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, Thailand
Health Action in Crises
As many as two billion people around the world face health threats every day.
People in more than 45 countries are currently experiencing emergencies as a result of natural disasters, economic crises, or conflict. The Health Action in Crises team works with Member States and other partners to minimize suffering and death in all crisis situations – whether they are highly publicized, such as the Tsunami in South Asia, or hidden and forgotten, such as the ongoing conflict in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. WHO works in countries to help national authorities and communities to prepare by strengthening overall capacity to manage all types of crises; to respond by ensuring effective and timely action to address public health priorities; to recover by ensuring that local health systems are functioning; and to mitigate against the effects of crises on public health.
International Health Regulations
One critical tool in the fight against the global spread of infectious disease is the International Health Regulations (IHR). Negotiated by WHO’s Member States, the IHR establish rules that countries must follow to identify disease outbreaks and stop them from spreading.
In 2005, the IHR were expanded to cover new diseases such as SARS, and new strains of influenza, along with established diseases such as polio. Coming into force June 2007, the revised IHR ask countries to build up their capacity to prevent, protect against and control disease outbreaks. The new rules also give WHO a more direct
role in investigating and stopping outbreaks. WHO is working closely with countries to ensure they have the skills and people in place to carry out this work and to provide training and expertise where it is needed.
Preventing chronic diseases
Changes in diet, physical activity, and tobacco use in both rich and poor countries have dramatically increased the risks of chronic diseases such as heart disease,
stroke, cancer and diabetes. More than half of all deaths worldwide each year – about 35 million out of 58 million are caused by chronic disease.
Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health
WHO’s Global strategy on diet, physical activity and health is meant to help fight heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and obesity-related conditions. The strategy encourages people to be more physically active and eat healthier diets.
Tobacco use kills about five million people every year. A growing number of countries are giving people a better chance at a healthy life by signing up to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control – the first ever global health treaty negotiated by WHO. The treaty is now in force, and sets international standards on
tobacco control measures such as tobacco prices and tax increases, advertising and sponsorship, product warning labels, smuggling and second-hand smoke.
Myth: Chronic disease affects only the wealthy
Reality: Four of every five people who die of chronic disease live in low and
middle-income countries.
Myth: Chronic disease Mainly affects older people
Reality: One quarter of the men and women who die each year are under age
60. Chronic disease cuts lives short, takes mothers and fathers away from their
children and costs economies billions of dollars.
The good news is that people can largely prevent and control chronic disease by
reducing three risks – tobacco use, unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity. As
a top priority, WHO – together with countries, the private sector, civil society and
others – is working on several key initiatives to stop the growing chronic disease
epidemic.
Fact: Global deaths from chronic disease are expected to rise by 17% worldwide over the next ten years.
Health at the heart of the millennium development goals
At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, 191 countries set themselves the ambitious task of tackling poverty and ill-health and improving people’s lives by 2015. Derived from the Millennium Declaration, these tasks are what became known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Health is at the heart of this agenda. Three of the eight goals – cutting child deaths, improving maternal health, and combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases – are directly about health. Better health is also key to the other goals, such as eradicating extreme poverty and hunger and achieving environmental sustainability.
Goal 4
Cut child deaths
Close to 11 million children under five die every year.
Almost 90% of all child deaths are attributable to just six conditions: diarrhoea, HIV/AIDS, malaria, measles, neonatal causes and pneumonia. Malnutrition increases the risk of dying – over half of all child deaths occur in children who are underweight. Some countries have made progress, but in 14 countries, 10 of them in Africa, more young children are dying now than in 1990.
In Niger and elsewhere, WHO works with countries to dramatically reduce the appalling rates of child deaths with
technical advice and policy support – all with the goal of cutting child deaths by two thirds.
Goal 5
Improve maternal health
More than half a million women die each year in pregnancy and
childbirth.
Most of them die because there is not enough skilled regular and emergency care. More and more women have access to skilled birth care in some parts of the world, such as South-East Asia and North Africa. However, in sub-Saharan Africa, 1 in 16 women have the risk of dying during pregnancy or childbirth over a lifetime, compared with about 1 in 2800 women in the rich world.
WHO provides guidelines for safe pregnancy and childbirth and encourages countries to use them, with the aim of cutting maternal mortality by three quarters by 2015, saving close to 400 000 women’s lives every year.
Goal 8
Develop a global partnership for development
WHO is working to ensure people have universal access to life-saving drugs
Goal 7
Ensure environmental sustainability
Health is closely linked with all the MDG s
Ensuring environmental sustainability is essential for improving people’s health – through the water we drink, the air we breathe and the food we grow. In the same way, the goal of eradicating extreme poverty means addressing diseases that cripple workers, ravage families and kill children before they can contribute to a better future.
Goal 6:
Combat HIV /AIDS, Malaria and other diseases
HIV /AIDS – Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV /AIDS
This year, five million people will be newly infected with HIV and more than three million people will die of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses.Today, just one in five people at risk of HIV has access to the information and tools they need to prevent it, and millions are in urgent need of antiretroviral medicines. WHO is working with countries:
• To prevent people becoming infected with HIV – helping them change their behaviours to reduce HIV risks and making prevention commodities, such as condoms and sterile injecting equipment, widely available.
• To expand the availability of treatment. WHO advises on the most effective HIV/AIDS treatments. The WHO AIDS Medicines and Diagnostic Service helps countries procure and deliver affordable, quality health supplies
• To provide the best care for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. WHO promotes greater involvement of communities and primary health care services in care delivery?
Tuberculosis
The global TB epidemic causes nearly nine million cases of disease and kills about
two million people each year. The good news is that the prevalence of TB cases has dropped by 20% since 1990 and all regions of the world are on track to meet the MDG targets of halving TB prevalence and deaths by 2015 – except sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe. The bad news is that the TB situation in Africa is now so grave that it was declared a WHO emergency by African Ministers of Health.
WHO – in collaboration with the Stop TB Partnership – leads the global drive to expand the use of DOTS, the internationally recommended strategy to fight TB. The DOTS Strategy can cure up to 95% of patients, even in the poorest countries, and is now being used in 187 countries. WHO is also working to adapt DOTS to meet the special challenges of multidrug-resistant TB and co-infection with TB and HIV. HIV is driving the TB epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. In China between 1990 and 2000, the prevalence of pulmonary TB fell by one third in the part of the country covered by DOTS services, compared to the other part of the country not using DOTS.
Malaria
Target: Halt by 2015 and have begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases
Malaria kills more than one million people a year – most of them children under five in Africa. In fact, on average a child in Africa dies every 30 seconds from a malaria infection caused by the bite of a mosquito.WHO urges four main strategies to tackle malaria:
• prevention, through protection against mosquito bites;
• rapid treatment with effective anti-malarial medicines;
• a special effort to protect pregnant women and young children;
• pre-empting epidemics by detecting them and acting swiftly to stop them.
WHO’s target, and that of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, is to cut malaria by half by 2010, with the goal of reaching the MDG target by 2015.
In KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, cases of malaria plummeted by a remarkable 90% between 2000 and 2004. This was due to a combination of political commitment, health education in schools and on the radio, involvement of traditional leaders, community groups, NGOs and industry and a government-led programme of indoor spraying with insecticides. The lesson is that success is possible with the right strategy and political will.
WHO is working to ensure that everyone has access to quality health care?
In many countries, there is little money available to spend on health. This results in inadequate hospitals and clinics, a short supply of essential medicines and equipment, and a critical shortage of health workers. Worse, in some parts of the world, large numbers of health workers are dying from the very diseases which they are trying to prevent and treat. WHO works with countries to help them plan, educate and manage the health workforce, for example, by advising on policies to recruit and retain people working in health.
In many countries, particularly in Africa, the shortage of health workers is a crisis. Health workers are dying; they are seeking other jobs because of poor working conditions; they are moving from rural to urban areas; or migrating to other countries that pay better.
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