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OFFICIAL RECORDS OF THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION No. 51 THE WORK OF WHO 1953 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR - GENERAL TO THE WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY AND TO THE UNITED NATIONS WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION PALAIS DES NATIONS GENEVA March 1954 ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations are used in the Official Records of the World Health Organization: ACC - Administrative Committee on Co-ordination CIOMS - Council for International Organizationsof Medical Sciences ECAFE - Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East ECE Economic Commission for Europe ECLA Economic Commission for Latin America FAO Food and Agriculture Organization ICAO --- International Civil Aviation Organization ICITO Interim Commission of the International Trade Organization ILO - International Labour Organisation (Office) ITU - International Telecommunication Union OIHP - Office International d'Hygiène Publique PASB Pan American Sanitary Bureau PASO Pan American Sanitary Organization TAA Technical Assistance Administration TAB Technical Assistance Board TAC Technical Assistance Committee UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization UNICEF United Nations Children's Fund UNKRA - United Nations Korean Reconstruction Agency UNRWAPRNE - United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East WFUNA World Federation of United Nations Associations WMO World Meteorological Organization PRINTED IN SWITZERLAND TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction y PART I - GENERAL REVIEW Chapter 1. Communicable Diseases 3 Chapter2.The Tuberculosis Research Office 18 Chapter 3.Public -HealthServices 20 Chapter4.Education and Training 36 Chapter 5.Epidemiological and Health Statistical Services 42 Chapter 6. Drugs and other Therapeutic Substances 49 Chapter 7.Procurement of Supplies 55 Chapter 8.Publications and Reference Services 57 Chapter 9.Public Information 59 Chapter 10.Constitutional, Financial and Administrative Developments 62 PART II - THE REGIONS Chapter 11.AfricanRegion 67 Chapter 12.Region of the Americas 71 Chapter 13.South -East Asia Region 77 Chapter 14.EuropeanRegion 84 Chapter 15.Eastern Mediterranean Region 97 Chapter 16.Western Pacific Region 105 PART III - CO- OPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS Chapter 17.Co- ordination of Work with other Organizations 115 Chapter 18.Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance for Economic Development 122 PART IV - PROJECT LIST Projects Completed and Current in 1953 129 MAPS 1. International Sanitary Regulations :Position at 31 December 1953 44 2.The African Continent 67 - III - ANNEXES Page 1. Membership of the World Health Organization 155 2.Membership of the Executive Board 156 3. Expert Advisory Panels and Committees 157 4.Conferences and Meetings organized by the World Health Organization, or with its Help, in 1953 162 5. International Seminars and Training Courses 164 6. Conferences and Meetings of the United Nations and Specialized Agencies at which WHO was represented in 1953 168 7. Conferences and Meetings of Non -Governmental and other Organizations at which WHO was represented in 1953 171 8.Tentative Schedule of WHO Organizational Meetings in 1954 174 9.Non -Governmental Organizations in Official Relationship with WHO 174 10. Regular Budget for 1953 175 11. Status of Contributions and of Advances to the Working Capital Fund 176 12. Structure of the Headquarters Secretariat 181 13. Senior Officials of the World Health Organization 182 14. Numbers and Distribution of Staff 183 15. Composition of Staff by Nationality 185 16. Fellowships awarded in1953 186 INTRODUCTION THE year 1953 must be viewed as still partofthe early historyofthe World Health Organization and hence as a yearofgrowth, adjustment and consolidation.On all organizational levels, at headquarters and in the regions, further efforts were made to study -and apply as much as possible -the lessons which resulted from the trials and errors as well as from the achievements which characterized the first yearsof WHO'sexistence. I am sure that, as this Report for the year 1953 unfolds, its readers will find increasing evidenceofactivities having been planned and having been more adequately adapted to what has been emerging as oneof WHO'smost important goals: to contribute by all available means to the strengtheningofnational health administrations. Indeed, there can be no doubt that mostofthe projects developed during 1953 have a more concrete and a sharper definition than thoseofthe early yearsofthe Organization. It is also obvious that the criteria of realism have been guiding us more and more in the selection of techniques and methods through which these projects have been carried out. Above all, there is revealed a growing awareness in all of usofthe need to plan WHO's role in promoting world health as comprising only one part- although admittedly a vital and central one -of the general framework gf all national and international efforts to improve social and economic conditions throughout the world. In this process of the shifting of emphasis from activities designed to meet emergency situations to well -balanced programmes destined to satisfy long -term needs, some of the projects executed during 1953 may have lost part of the dramatic appeal which the earlier ones of the Organization had for both the technical and the lay public.But that loss is, in my opinion, largely compensated for by the increased efficiency the Organization has gained, thanks to a better understanding of the various types of contribution it can make to the improvement of health and the attainment of greater prosperity. This new fact is, to a varying degree, reflected in many of the results achieved by WHO in 1953. That such advances could be made, despite the extremely serious and prolonged financial crises WHO had to face during the year, is further proofofits strength and dynamism. In an attempt to summarize briefly the major new trends and developmentsofWHO's work during 1953, Ishould like first to give a few examplesofdirect assistance rendered by various partsofthe Organi- zation to national health administrations. A striking achievement in that field was the survey the Regional -V- Office for South -East Asia carried out at the request of the Government of Burma for a complete reorgani- zation of its Central Health Directorate. The recommendations submitted to the Government were accepted without delay.For the first time in the same region, a certificated course in public- health nursing has been organized and completed. Generally through all regions, and most particularly in the Americas and the Eastern Mediterranean, integrated health projects (for example in El Salvador, Egypt and Peru) are beginning to have beneficial effects on the development of local health administrations.Indeed, by demonstrating both the possibility and the value of co- ordination, such projects are stimulating governments to undertake better planning of their programmes in advance, while at the same time they are encouraging countries in which systems of public- health administration are still at the formative stage, to build up sound and integrated health services. It has become abundantly clear that WHO will have to make use of all its ingenuity to devise means through which the extremely complex and necessarily slow -moving machinery of co- ordination and integration can be perfected. It is our best -and perhaps our only -hope that more and more governments will come to realize that, in order to be effective, health work must be carried out as part of an organizational whole and that the progress in any country implies simultaneous advances in the closely interrelated fields of health and of social and economic development. In all regions, efforts were intensified in 1953 to promote by all available means the education and training of competent professional and auxiliary workers for various types of health services.In the Americas, for example, the Regional Office has given assistance to schoolsofpublic health receiving international students in order to improve their courses and extend their facilities so that they may be used to train workers in environmental sanitation from all countries of the Region. Through an increasing number of conferences and seminars, up -to -date scientific information continued to be made available to many countries. The African regional conference on nursing education, which was attended by delegates from 20 countries and territories, was regarded as a first step in the interchange of information on nursing problems in Africa. Discussion centred on the types of nursing services required at the present stage of development, and on the methods of training best suited to available recruits, both male and female. WHO's interest in promoting health education of the public was high- lighted in 1953 by two conferences organized on that subject in London and Mexico City.The purpose of these conferences was to bring together, for exchange of experience, medical administrators and persons actively engaged in health education, and to assist in the development of health education within the countries of the respective regions. Participants in these conferences underlined the extremely important work school -teachers and education officers can do to develop desirable health practices in children of school age, in parents and in village groups. The First World Conference on Medical Education, held in London under the auspices of the World Medical Association and with the support and participation of WHO, brought to the attention of medical