Origins of the WHO: The International Health Conference adopted WHO’s constitution in July 1946. Later, on April 7, 1948, the United Nations set up The World Health Organization as a specialized agency dedicated to health. The WHO international office is in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mission and Constitution: The mission of the WHO is help achieve the well-being of the world’s people. Well being to the WHO does not only mean being free from disease, but being mentally, physically and socially healthy. WHO is comprised of 192 member states who govern the WHO by way of the World Health Assembly. The Assembly decides on the WHO’s two year program, budget and the direction of major policies.
The WHO provides assistance in monitoring, and in responding to and suppresing outbreaks.
WHO Governing Constitution: The Basic Texts include all the fundamental documents of the WHO, its constitution, members states, and agreements with other organizations. The compiled document available online is an unwieldy text of hundreds of pages long. At any rate, these documents are a wealth of information about how the WHO works.
Membership: WHO membership is open to all countries and aims to act in all areas of healthcare. The last member added to the members list was East Timor on September 27, 2002 and the first member state was China and the United Kingdom on July 22, 1946 followed by Canada, New Zealand and Syria the same year. The United States joined on June 21, 1948.
WHO Director General and Pandemic Phase: WHO's current direct general, Margaret Chan was elected on November 9, 2006 and is the first Chinese national to occupy the post. The election was thought to have been made in part because of Chan's experience fighting bird flu in Hong Kong in 1997 and SARS in 2003 while she was Hong Kong's Director of Public Health. Chan is a Canadian-trained physician. WHO’s ex-director general, Dr. Lee Jong wook, was nominated by the World Health Organization’s Executive Board in 2003, but died suddenly May 22, 2006. Pandemic level, or phase, is determined by the Director-General.
The World Health Organization Executive Board: Made up of 34 experts elected for three year terms. Resolutions and decisions and official records are available online from the Executive Board meetings. The official languages of the Executive Board are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish, but other languages are used with translation services to the official languages.
The World Health Assembly: All the resolutions and decisions made at all the WHO Health Assemblies since 1948 are here. Official records from each World Health Assembly are also available, although the texts are somewhat awkward for scrolling.
2006 WHO Assembly and Bird Flu: The World Health Assembly that was held in May 2006, is not listed on the above-mentioned page yet. The director's report to member nations dwelled quite a bit on bird flu in 2006. You can read the2006 Director General’s report to the Assembly here. The late Dr. Jong wook emphasizes that nutritious food has been lost as 200 million domestic birds have died or have been culled. He warned nations to not "let down their guard," because bird flu "is not going away."
WHO Focus: The election of Margaret Chan to the top WHO post is a signal that the WHO wants to be even stronger in combatting infectious diseases such as H5N1 bird flu, malaria and SARS. Controversial measures to combat malaria such as using the banned pesticide DDT and mass poultry culling campaigns to fight bird flu are sure to be debated.