From laboratories to battlefields, the United Nations' specialized health agency has been dedicated to the well-being of all people since 1948. It is guided by science and supported by its 194 member countries, including the United States, a co-founder who on Monday he announced plans. to retire.
What has the WHO done for the world? The short answer is: a lot. The UN agency currently works with its members and on the frontlines of health in more than 150 locations and has achieved many public health milestones.
WHO and its partners are providing COVID-19 and other vaccines to remote communities, including Kuvamiti in the Solomon Islands. (archive)
Here's what you need to know about the largest health body on the planet:
Deal with emergencies
Amid crises, conflicts, the continuing threat of disease outbreaks and climate change, WHO has responded, from wars in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine to ensuring life-saving vaccines and medical supplies reach remote or dangerous areas.
At a time when healthcare faces unprecedented risks, WHO documented more than 1,200 attacks in 2023 affecting workers, patients, hospitals, clinics and ambulances in 19 countries and territories, resulting in more than 700 deaths and almost 1,200 injured.
In fact, WHO teams often go where others cannot. They routinely evacuate injured patients and provide life-saving equipment, supplies and services in areas devastated by conflict or disaster.
See below how WHO teams helped develop an inter-agency polio vaccination campaign in besieged and war-torn Gaza in September 2024, when the fast-spreading virus re-emerged 25 years after it had been eradicated:
Monitoring and response to health crises
Every day and night, teams of WHO experts sift through thousands of pieces of data, including scientific articles and disease surveillance reports, looking for signs of disease outbreaks or other threats to public health, from bird flu to COVID-19. 19.
WHO is mobilized to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks while strengthening access to essential health services.
That includes bolstering hospital capacity to do everything from delivering new babies to treating war wounds and training health workers.
A laboratory scientist works at a WHO collaborating research center in Thailand. (archive)
Eliminating diseases around the world.
A wide range of diseases and conditions are ready to be eliminated if appropriate public health policies are implemented, including neglected and vector-borne infectious diseases, sexually transmitted infections, diseases transmitted from mother to child and those that vaccines can prevent.
The UN health agency supplies essential medicines and medical equipment as it works to enable (and, where possible, strengthen) the capacity of laboratories to diagnose diseases.
In 2024, WHO Member States achieved several milestones in addressing these important global health challenges. Seven countries (Brazil, Chad, India, Jordan, Pakistan, Timor-Leste and Viet Nam) eliminated a number of tropical diseases, including leprosy and trachoma.
Mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis has been eliminated in Belize, Jamaica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Namibia reached a key milestone towards eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and hepatitis B.
WHO has also played a vital role over the past seven decades, including the eradication of smallpox in 1980, the near eradication of polio and the provision of life-saving assistance in Gaza during the recent war.
A WHO mobile clinic provides services in Duhok, Iraq. (archive)
AI and digital health
WHO is embracing new frontiers, including artificial intelligence (AI), in digital health.
As the influence of emerging AI technologies continues to grow, WHO is working to ensure their safety and effectiveness for health.
This includes new guidance published last October that lists key regulatory considerations on topics such as harnessing the potential of AI to treat or detect diseases such as cancer or tuberculosis while minimizing risks such as unethical data collection, threats to cybersecurity and the amplification of bias or misinformation.
In Singapore, digital devices help patients communicate with their healthcare providers. (archive)
Tackling the deadly climate-related health crisis
The climate-related health crisis affects at least 3.5 billion people, almost half of the world's population.
Extreme heat, weather and air pollution caused millions of deaths in 2023, putting enormous pressure on health systems and the workforce, from the current wildfires burning on the US West Coast to the deadly flash floods in Indonesia.
An Ebola virus survivor in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has his eyes examined at a WHO-supported eye clinic in North Kivu. (archive)
Part of WHO's response has been to protect health from the wide range of impacts of climate change, including assessing vulnerabilities and developing plans.
The UN agency has also worked on implementing response systems for key risks, such as extreme heat and infectious diseases, and supporting resilience and adaptation in health-determining sectors, such as water and wastewater. food.
What is the WHO working on now?
The WHO is leading efforts for a global treaty to take a deeper and deeper step to strengthen pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, very much in line with the founders of the International Sanitary Conference of 1851.
The UN agency is also currently working to achieve its “three billion goals.”
The targets set in 2019 are that, by 2025, one billion more people will benefit from universal health coverage, one billion more people will be better protected against health emergencies, and one billion more people will enjoy better health and well-being.
Who runs the WHO?
Leadership is truly international.
Based in Geneva, the UN agency is headed by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The current approved program budget for the 2024-2025 biennium is $6.83 billion, coming from member dues in addition to voluntary contributions.
The WHO's decision-making body, the World Health Assembly, is made up of its member countries, which meet annually to agree on WHO priorities and policies.
Members make decisions on health goals and strategies that will guide their own public health work and the work of the WHO Secretariat to move the world towards better health and well-being for all. That includes implementing reform measures that have made the WHO more effective.
