Pneumonia Outbreak In China

• Founded in 1948, WHO is the United Nations specialized agency for Health.
• Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland.
• Objectives:
  • Lead global efforts to expand universal health coverage.
  • Focus on the areas of disease prevention, control and elimination, and the promotion of health and well-being.
• Funding: WHO gets its funding from two main sources: Member States paying their assessed contributions (countries’ membership dues), and voluntary contributions from Member States and other partners. 

WHO’s Regulation :

• The International Health Regulations (2005), or IHR (2005), represents a binding international legal agreement involving 196 countries across the globe, including all the Member States of WHO. 
  • Aim:  to help the international community prevent and respond to acute public health risks that have the potential to cross borders and threaten people worldwide.
• Public health emergency of international concern: A PHEIC is defined in the IHR (2005) as, “an extraordinary event which is determined to constitute a public health risk to other States through the international spread of disease and to potentially require a coordinated international response”
• The Emergency Committee is made up of international experts who provide technical advice to the WHO Director-General in the context of a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC).
• The Director-General makes the final determination of a PHEIC and Temporary Recommendations to address the situation.