707 



The last details in this hasty, impressionistic sketch of 

 WHO refer to its work on the co-ordination and stimulation 

 of medical research, such as that on human genetics, heart 

 diseases, cancer, dental health, bacterial resistance of insecti- 

 cides — wherever a comparison from different areas may be 

 revealing, or where a condition, a reaction to a drug for 

 instance, may be too rare to excite attention in any one 

 country. 



It is an impressive record — yet this is only preliminary 

 work in bringing to most people in the world a modest chance 

 to enjoy the health which imtil recently has been the blessing 

 of a privileged few. And already we have such an increased 

 expectancy of life and so many more children survive that 

 the problem of population growth makes almost every other 

 problem trivial. 



Impressive — ^but WHO can only act on request from gov- 

 ernments. Its expert advisers operate only within national 

 limits. And because of lack of money or skilled manpower not 

 all requests can be met. Where it is able to help, WHO does 

 its best to encourage the mobilization and creation of the local 

 infrastructure which will maintain, or at least not wholly 

 throw away, the value of WHO's efforts in disease control. 



A year later (1968), in the Br itish Medical Journal^ Sir John 

 Charles took a similar measure of WHO for the 1960 to 1965 time 

 period: 



In 1960 the UN and WHO were faced with a serious 

 emergency in the newly independent Republic of the Congo 

 ( Leopold ville). Owing to the political crisis the health situa- 

 tion had gravely deteriorated. WHO demonstrated its co- 

 ordinating and advisory functions in a variety of ways. [It 

 placed] 37 Red Cross medical teams where they were most 

 needed. By recruiting a few key health persoimel it helped to 

 avert the breakdown of environmental services and strength- 

 ened the control of disease. Finally, looking beyond the 

 immediate present to the future stalling of the health services, 

 it worked out a long-term programme of education and train- 

 ing of doctors and other personnel which is now bearing fruit. 

 Altogether it was a highly successful reply to a challenge. 



Another factor in increasing WHO's African responsi- 

 bilities was the rapid accession of many states to independ- 

 ence, followed by their admission to the Organization as full 

 members. At the end of 1960 only seven governments in the 

 Africa Region were members of WHO. Five years later 

 there were 27. 



"WHO's serious interest in national health planning can 

 be traced to Latin American activities which began in 1959. 

 It extended to the African Region in 1963, when the Organiza- 

 tion became associated with the governments of five African 

 countries in the preparation of health plans which were to be 

 integral part of the national plans for social and economic 

 development. It is now an advisory activity of major 

 importance. 



