705 



to liolp develo}) ofenerally available means of protection 



against them; [and] 



* * * 



(2) A general acceleration of research and health services 

 to minimize the incidence of infections disease, particnlarly 

 in underdeveloped countries. No situation could be better de- 

 signed for the evolution of serious new vinises than the exis- 

 tence of crov.'ded, underfed human populations in which foci 

 could spread with a minimum of medical control.^- 



During 1969, WHO extended the scope and activities of its refer- 

 ence centers and collaborating laboratories on the viruses in general 

 and established a new regional center for the enteroviruses at the 

 Enterovirology Unit, Center for Disease Control, Atlanta, Georgia. 

 The Center, Emory University, and WHO jointly conducted a con- 

 ference on Hong Kong influenza and published the results.^^ 



The WHO Director-General's report of 1969 expressed the belief 

 that the cooperation of national centers had resulted in a degree of 

 control of influenza : 



To cope with [influenza], a world network consisting 

 of two international centres and 85 national centres in 55 

 countries has been established. WHO plays the role of central- 

 izing agent, receiving and passing on to all INIember States, 

 as rapidly as possible, the significant information that reaches 

 it through the international network. Perhaps it is not by 

 mere chance that the many foci of influenza re}X)rted during 

 the past year in the southern as well as the northern hemis- 

 phere remained limited in extent.^* 



Wliether or not the United States contributes to WHO for the 

 global monitoring, control, and eradication of communicable diseases, 

 or to some other organization over which it might have more direct 

 power, the fact remains that the United States is subject to worsening 

 hazards domestically in the infectious disease area. In the developed 

 countries, including the United States, the natural decline in the in- 

 cidence of tuberculosis is slowing down; malaria and yellow fever 

 are within the national boundaries ; and there is an observed upward 

 trend in the incidence of gonorrhea. Resistant forms of some of these 

 diseases (malaria and gonorrhea) acquired by troops in Viet-Nam are 

 not likely to become less resistant when troops with residual organisms 

 return home. Plague may not be importable by American troops from 

 Viet-Nam; nevertheless the disease is there. In 1969 "the highest in- 

 cidence of plague was again in the Republic of Viet-Nam, where the 

 numl)er of cases was greater than the combined total for all other 

 countries." ^ 



As the Director-General of the World Health Organization stated 

 a few years ago, "* * * the quarantineable diseases, which many 

 people think of as scourges of the past, are still daily realities.'' 



"= Ihif'.. i)a,'re 90 



s'! Bulletin of the World Health Organization (Vol. 41, Nos. 3, 4, and 5. 1969). 



" WHO Chronicle (.Tulv 1970), page 292. 



•"*■■ WHO Chronicle (.Tune 1970), page 269. 



