Organizations Associated with the COVID-19 Pandemic Codexery

World Health Organization

UN agency coordinating global health responses and standards.

7 April 1948 marks the WHO's establishment, with its formal operations commencing on 1 September 1948.[1] Membership in the WHO is restricted to sovereign states, making it the world's largest intergovernmental health organization.[2]

Quick Facts

Abbreviation
WHO
Pronunciation
Initialism (W-H-O) by WHO itself and governmental stakeholders
Leader
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Headquarters
Geneva, Switzerland
Parent organization
United Nations Economic and Social Council
Budget
$6.83 billion (2025–2026)

Facts from the source article.

Key facts and history

After World War II, the United Nations assembled all other health organizations to form the WHO.[3] G. Brock Chisholm was appointed the first director-general, and Andrija Štampar was the assembly's first president.[4][5] In 1959, the WHO signed Agreement WHA 12–40 with the International Atomic Energy Agency.[6] A series of meetings known as the International Sanitary Conferences started on 23 June 1851 and continued for roughly 87 years, ending in 1938.[7]

Cholera was the almost exclusive focus of the initial conference held in Paris.[7] A multi-state international agreement was not achieved until after seven conferences had been held over a period of 41 years.[7] The seventh conference, which took place in Venice in 1892, ultimately produced a convention focused on the sanitary control of ships passing through the Suez Canal.[8] On 22 July 1946, the WHO's constitution was signed by all 51 United Nations members plus 10 additional countries.[9]

What the cited sources add

The same source states that the WHO's goal for its 2025-2028 work period is to get the world back on track to achieve health-related Sustainable Development Goals.[10] The WHO's own brochure states its goal is to ensure a billion more people have universal health coverage, protect a billion more from health emergencies, and provide a further billion with better health and well-being.[11] The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that almost 3,000 positions, 22% of the organization's staff, were eliminated between January and June 2025.[10] The NBC News article reports that the United States terminated its partnership with the WHO on 22 January 2026.[12]

The Kaiser Family Foundation confirms that the U.S. withdrawal was complete on 22 January 2026.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Ascher, "Current Problems in the World Health Organization's Program", International Organization, 1952, p. 27–50; "Milestones for health over 70 years", World Health Organization/Europe, 17 March 2020; "World Health Organization", Encyclopedia Britannica (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "WHO (World Health Organisation)", Internews (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: McCarthy, "A brief history of the World Health Organization.", The Lancet, October 2002, p. 1111–1112 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Normalizing the Ideal: Psychology, Schooling, and the Family in Postwar Canada", University of Toronto Press, January 1999; "World Health Organization", The British Medical Journal, 7 August 1948, p. 302–303 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Open Library record, ISBN 9780802082596 ("Normalizing the Ideal"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
  6. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Appeal by Health Professionals for Independence of the World Health Organization", Independence for WHO (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Howard-Jones, "The scientific background of the International Sanitary Conferences, 1851–1938", World Health Organization, 1974, p. 9–11 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Howard-Jones, "The scientific background of the International Sanitary Conferences, 1851–1938", World Health Organization, 1974, p. 58–65 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "World Health Organization" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Szeming Sze Papers 1945–1988 1945–1947 | Digital Pitt", digital.library.pitt.edu; "World Health Organization", The British Medical Journal, 7 August 1948, p. 302–303; "The Move towards a New Health Organization: International Health Conference", Chronicle of the World Health Organization, 1947, p. 6–11; Shimkin, "The World Health Organization", Science, 27 September 1946, p. 281–283; "The Move towards a New Health Organization: International Health Conference", Chronicle of the World Health Organization, 1947, p. 6–11; A en.wikipedia.org
  10. "The U.S. Government and the World Health Organization", Kaiser Family Foundation, 21 January 2025. facts only, no text reused. kff.org
  11. "What we do", World Health Organization. facts only, no text reused. who.int
  12. "U.S. severs ties with WHO, raising concerns about flu epidemics", NBC News, 2026-01-23. facts only, no text reused. nbcnews.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article World Health Organization (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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