Dag Hammarskjöld Library at Uppsala University
WHO
- © United Nations
World Health Organization
World Health Organization, WHO, founded in 1948, is the United Nations specialized agency for health. The aim of WHO is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health. Health is defined in WHO's Constitution as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
WHO act as the guiding and coordinating body for international health work to combat disease, especially key infectious diseases, monitor outbreaks of infectious disease, and promote the general health of the peoples of the world. It performs research on illness, supports health education and improvement of the health systems of member states.
WHO is governed by 192 Member States through the World Health Assembly. The Health Assembly is composed of representatives from WHO's Member States. The main tasks of the World Health Assembly are
to approve the WHO programme and the budget for the following biennium, to decide major policy questions and to elect
the Director-General.
The Executive Board facilitates the work of the World Health Assembly by setting the agenda, preparing resolutions and
giving advice.
The Secretariat, headed by the Director-General, is the administrative centre of WHO. It is staffed by some 3,500 health and other experts and support staff, working at headquarters, in the six regional offices, in Cairo, New Delhi, Manila, Brazzaville, Washington, D.C. and Copenhagen, and in the individual representation offices worldwide.
WHO is headquartered in Geneva.
Documentation
The WHO official web site provides multilingual information on projects, initiatives, programs and activities, disease outbreak news and emergencies, full text documents and reports and access to relevant databases.
The World Health Report is an annual survey of the global health situation focusing on a specific theme. It is posted at the WHO official web site from 1995 onwards.
Bulletin of the World Health Organization contains research findings and policy-relevant discussions. It can be accessed from Vol. 1 1947 through the WHO official web site.
Weekly epedimiological record(WER), published by WHO for more than 70 years, contains epidemiological data useful in disease surveillance on a global level. It is available online from its start in 1926 at the WHO official web site.
World Drug Information, a quarterly review of pharmaceutical development, is posted at the WHO official web site from 1998 onwards.
A summary of the work of the World Health Organization for a given year with references to essential documents can be accessed through the Yearbook of the United Nations, Part Six: Intergovernmental Organizations to the United Nations. A complete collection of yearbooks and is held by the Dag Hammarskjöld Library, Uppsala, and the Libraries at UN Headquarters in New York and Geneva. Since October 2008 the complete full text collection of The United Nations Yearbooks is available online at http://unyearbook.un.org/.
Databases and Indexes
Numerous health-related databases can be accessed from the WHO official web site, section Research Tools.
WHOLIS is the World Health Organization library database, indexing all WHO publications from 1948 onwards and articles from WHO-produced journals and technical documents from 1985 to the present. Includes full text links.
WHOSIS - WHO Statistical Information System is the WHO database for global health statistics.