WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION WHO

 

History of medicine

FORMATION OF INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN THE FIELD OF HEALTH CARE

WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) is one of the largest specialized agencies of the United Nations (UN). April 7, 1948 is considered the day of the official establishment of WHO — the day of ratification of the Charter of the Organization by 26 UN member states. As the main goal of the Organization, the WHO Constitution declared serving the humane idea - “the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health."

 

The emergence of cooperation between different countries in the field of health is due to the need for international coordination of measures for the sanitary protection of the territories of states in connection with recurring epidemics and pandemics. This was most clearly manifested in the period of the classical Middle Ages, when specific measures were taken against epidemics in Europe (quarantines, hospitals, outposts, etc.). The low efficiency of sanitary and anti-epidemic measures carried out at the national level made it necessary to seek a solution on an intergovernmental basis.

 

To this end, they began to create international sanitary councils: in Tangier (1792-1914), Constantinople (1839-1914), Tehran (1867-1914), Alexandria (1843-1938).

In 1851, the first International Sanitary Conference took place in Paris, at which doctors and diplomats from 12 countries (Austria, England, Vatican, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Russia, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany, Turkey, France) developed and adopted the International Sanitary Convention and the International Quarantine Charter. They set the maximum and minimum quarantine periods for smallpox, plague and cholera, clarified port sanitary regulations and functions of quarantine stations, determined the importance of epidemiological information in international cooperation to prevent the spread of infections. Subsequently, such conferences became an important and fruitful form of international cooperation of European countries.

The first Pan American Sanitary Conference was held in December 1902 in Washington. The conference created a permanent body — the International (Pan American) Sanitary Bureau, which since 1958 has been known as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) —Pan-American Health Organization (RANO).

Another important step in the development of international health was the creation in 1907 in Paris of the International Bureau of Public Hygiene (IBAH) —a permanent international organization whose mission was: “to collect and bring to the notice of participating countries facts and documents of a general nature relating to public health, especially infectious diseases such as cholera, plague and yellow fever, as well as the collection and dissemination of information on measures to combat these diseases. " The IBAH has also been involved in the development of international conventions and agreements in the field of public health, monitoring their implementation, issues of court hygiene, water supply, food hygiene, resolving international quarantine disputes and studying national sanitary and quarantine legislation. Russia participated in the establishment of the IBAH and had its permanent representative in it. So, in 1926, A.N. Sysin was appointed as the permanent representative of our country in the IBRC.

 

The IBRD published a weekly bulletin in French, which published information about the worldwide spread of smallpox, cholera, yellow fever and other common diseases. In 1922, the first international standard, the standard for diphthean toxoid, was created with the direct participation of IBOG, and in 1930 an international department was organized at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, responsible for the preservation of the relevant international standard anti-diphtheria serum. The IBRC existed until the end of 1950. His work experience and information and publishing activities were later used in the creation of the League of Nations and WHO Health Organization.

The League of Nations Health Organization (OZLN) was created after World War I in 1923 due to the sharp deterioration of the epidemic situation in Europe and the widespread occurrence of pandemics and epidemics of typhoid, cholera, smallpox and other infectious diseases. The scope of its activities was much wider,. than the range of issues that dealt with MBOG. The goal of the League of Nations Health Organization was "to take all international measures to prevent and control diseases."

The main areas of work of the PHPD were: coordination and stimulation of research on the most urgent problems of public health, the creation of international standards for biological and medicinal products, the development of an international classification of diseases and causes of death, the unification of national pharmacopoeias, the control of the most dangerous and common diseases, and and developing the institutional framework for an extensive global epidemiological information system.

 

Attaching great importance to scientific research, the PEPA established a number of expert committees and commissions on the most important areas of its activities (on biological standardization, on sanitary statistics, on malaria, cancer, leprosy, plague, on the unification of national pharmacopoeias, on the control of opium and other drugs, on nutrition, etc.), in which the most prominent scientists of various nationalities worked. Expert groups and scientific missions were sent to various countries in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia to assist local health authorities in organizing quarantine services, training medical personnel and organizing campaigns against cholera and smallpox.

The League of Nations Health Organization published the Weekly Newsletter and the Yearbook of Epidemic Diseases, which published statistics on the birth, death, and epidemic diseases of the world's population. By the end of the 1930s, the AESPD epidemiological information system (and its regional organizations in Washington, Alexandria, and Sydney, including the IBOG) covered about 95% of the world's population.

In 1946, the League of Nations, and with it, its Health Organization, ceased to exist.

After the Second World War, the United Nations (UN), established in 1945 on the initiative of the victor countries, became the leading organization of the international community. In February 1946, the UN Conference decided on the need to create a specialized UN agency on health issues. After the relevant preparatory work in June 1946, the International Conference on Health Care was convened in New York, which developed and adopted the Charter of a new international health organization - the World Health Organization — WHO ( World Health Organization - WHO , fig. 158).

The WHO Constitution proclaimed the basic principles of the cooperation of the Member States of the Organization, necessary "for happiness, harmonious relations between all peoples and for their security." An important place among them is the definition of health:

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not just the absence of disease or physical defects.

Possessing the highest attainable level of health is one of the fundamental rights of every person without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social status.

The health of all nations is a major factor in achieving peace and security and depends on the fullest cooperation of individuals and states ...

Governments are responsible for the health of their people, and this responsibility requires the adoption of appropriate social measures in the field of health ”.

By April 7, 1948, 26 UN member states had sent their notice of their acceptance of the WHO charter and its ratification. This day — April 7 — is considered to be the date of final registration by the World Health Organization and is annually celebrated by WHO as Health Day.

The First World Health Assembly, the highest body of the World Health Organization, met at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on June 24, 1948. By the end of its work, the number of WHO Member States reached 55. Dr. Broish Chisholm was elected the first WHO Director-General. , Canada). The seat of WHO headquarters was Geneva.

According to the Constitution, WHO has a decentralized regional structure and unites six regions: African (headquarters in Brazzaville), American (Washington), Eastern Mediterranean (Alexandria), European (Copenhagen), Western Pacific (Manila), Southeast Asia (New Delhi).

 

Nowadays, 140 countries are members of WHO. WHO's annual budget exceeds $ 100 million. More than 1,500 different health projects are being carried out by WHO each year. They are aimed at solving urgent problems: the development of national health services, the fight against infectious and non-communicable diseases, the training and improvement of medical personnel, the improvement of the environment, the protection of motherhood and childhood, the development of sanitary statistics, pharmacology and toxicology, international drug control, etc.

 

Socio-political issues, such as protecting humanity from the dangers of atomic radiation, the role of the doctor in strengthening peace, general and complete disarmament, banning chemical and bacteriological weapons in the shortest time possible, etc., also occupy an important place in the work of WHO.

 

The Soviet Union was among the founding states of WHO and actively participated in the creation and implementation of the vast majority of WHO programs, sending specialists as experts, consultants and staff at WHO headquarters and its regional offices. The Soviet Union was the initiator of many important WHO initiatives. Thus, in 1958, at the suggestion of the Soviet delegation, the XI World Health Assembly adopted a program for the eradication of smallpox on the globe (in 1980, it was successfully completed).

 

Scientific and reference centers and laboratories of WHO work on the basis of research institutions in our country, international scientific programs and projects are being developed. Thus, the collaboration of the Institute of Virology. DI Ivanovsky of the RAMS with WHO in the field of epidemiological information allows receiving weekly advance information about the epidemic situation and circulating influenza virus strains in the world and quickly isolating influenza virus strains as they are detected in other countries.

 

In our country, regularly held seminars, symposia, international conferences organized by the WHO. In 1963, on the basis of the Central Institute for the Advanced Training of Doctors, permanently established WHO courses on the organization, management and planning of health care were created. An important milestone in the history of WHO was the International Conference of WHO and the United Nations Children's Fund (United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund - UNICEF) on primary health care, held in Alma-Ata in 1978. Its final documents had a significant impact on the development of health care in most countries of the world.

 

At the initiative of the USSR, resolutions were adopted: on the tasks of WHO in connection with the UN resolution on general and complete disarmament (1960) and the UN Declaration on granting independence to colonial countries and peoples (1961), on protecting humanity from the dangers of atomic radiation (1961), on banning in the shortest time possible bacteriological and chemical weapons (1970), on the role of WHO, doctors and other health workers in preserving and strengthening the world (1979, 1981, 1983) and others.

 

The history of medicine