World Health Organization

Overview:

What is WHO:

WHO is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations, which is responsible for the health of human beings in the world without any exception. The word WHO is the acronym of the World Health Organization.

Establishment of WHO:

The WHO was established on 7th April 1948, and that is why the day 7th April is celebrated as World Health Day.

Members of WHO:

WHO has 193 member states. All of the member states of the United Nations are also members of the WHO.

The Objectives of the WHO:

The main aim of WHO is to Ensuring the main attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health. The WHO works worldwide to promote health and keep the world safe.

WHO Headquarters:

The headquarters of the WHO is situated in Geneva, Switzerland. WHO also has six regional offices and 150 field offices. The six regional offices are situated, one in Africa (Brazzaville, Republic of Congo), one in Europe (Copenhagen, Denmark), one in south-east Asia (New Delhi, India), one in eastern Mediterranian (Cairo, Egypt), one in western-Pacific (The Philippines), and one in America (Washington D.C., The United States).

World Health Assembly:

The World Health Assembly is a forum through which the WHO is governed by its 194 member states, and it is composed of health ministers from the member states.

WHO Goodwill Ambassadors:

The WHO goodwill ambassadors are celebrities from different fields. They use their talent and fame to advocate for health and well-being.

WHO Director-General:

The director-general of the WHO is elected by the World Health Assembly. A WHO director-general is elected for a 5-year term.

WHO Funding:

The WHO is financed by contributions from the member states and outside individual donors. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the biggest outside donor of the WHO.

India and The World Health Organization:

India is one of the founding members of the World Health Organization. India is the biggest supplier of medicines and vaccines to the world. India is also supplying Covid-19 vaccines to the world, especially poor countries. It is very unfortunate that the rich countries are looking to secure vaccines for their own people only but not thinking about poor countries. Most of the rich countries in the world secured far more vaccines than their actual population. On the other hand, some poor countries do not have even a single dose of vaccine for their people. The rich countries must think that, until every single person in the world will not get the vaccine till then, it is not possible to eliminate the Covid-19 virus from the world.