WHO’s priorities 60 years ago and now: two founding pioneers reflect

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Andrée Pinard Clark: You’re listening to the WHO podcast. My name is Andrée Pinard Clark and this is episode 34.

This year, WHO is celebrating its 60th anniversary. In this special episode, we take you back 60 years to hear from two founding pioneers of the WHO about the Organization’s priorities then and now.

Sixty years ago, when WHO was founded, the global public health community faced the daunting task of restoring basic health services in a world badly damaged by war. Just over two years after the founding of the United Nations, WHO was set up as its specialized agency for health. Some of WHO’s earliest activities included urgent responses to emergencies: the delivery of medicines and vaccines, the containment of outbreaks, and the provision of relief to refugees. At the same time, WHO worked to fulfill the broader role foreseen by its founders: to provide a mechanism through which all countries could collaborate in the pursuit of better health.

Mr Milton Siegel was born in 1911 in the United States of America. He joined WHO in 1948, as Director of the Division of Administration and Finance. He then became Assistant Director-General and worked in that role until 1973. He passed away in 1995. In this interview from November 1982, he talked about the priority programmes that were identified by the First World Health Assembly.

Milton Siegel: It was that fifth session in January of 1948 that took the decision to convene the First World Health Assembly even though at that time they did not yet have a sufficient number of ratifications of the government signatories to the Constitution at the time of the International Health Conference.

Another function of the Interim Commission was to make some proposals to the First World Health Assembly about the Programme of Work of the Organization. And after considerable debate, they selected four priority programmes as representing the major health problems then in the world, which in their opinion needed to be given priority in extending assistance to the developing countries. But the four were malaria, tuberculosis, venereal disease, and maternal and child health. Those were the four that went forward to the First World Health Assembly.

In the Programme Committee of the First World Health Assembly, they added what I recall two additional subjects, making a total of six. One was nutrition and the second one was environmental health, and I think at that time, it may have been called environmental sanitation. So these were the six priority programmes that represented the subjects which the government members of WHO at that time considered to be the subjects of public health problems in the world which warranted special handling and special consideration by the World Health Organization and its members.

Andrée Pinard Clark: Professor Ihsan Dogramaci, a child health specialist, signed the Constitution of WHO at the International Health Conference held in New York in 1946. Now, as the only living signatory, he shares with us some of his early memories of this historical moment:

Professor Ihsan Dogramaci: Sixty years have already passed, unbelievable. At the age of 31, perhaps I was one of the youngest participants of the Assembly on the occasion of signing the Constitution of WHO. Now, at the age of 93, I treasure the vivid memories of that occasion. And especially those extremely distinguished personalities that I had the privilege to meet and establish friendship.

Andrée Pinard Clark: We asked Professor Dogramaci to tell us what he considers to be the role of WHO today.

Professor Ihsan Dogramaci: Sixty years earlier, one wouldn’t imagine that in some years variola, smallpox would be wiped out of our globe, but it did happen. That’s a miracle. And it seems that pretty soon the same will be the case with polio. There are other diseases which could be eradicated by vaccination, but especially in less developed countries of our globe these are still there.

One other, perhaps less promising matter, is the establishment of new diseases. For example, the avian flu and then AIDS: these were not there before. So in some way new diseases are apt to be seen, and I think more active measures should be taken. World Health Organization is a machinery, perhaps the most active, in establishing better health internationally. But we shouldn’t be too optimistic, because other new diseases may come up and we should be ready to campaign those as well.

Andrée Pinard Clark: That’s all for this episode of the WHO podcast. Thank you for listening. If you have any comments on our podcast or any suggestions for future health topics, drop us a line. Our email address is Podcast@who.int.

For the World Health Organization, this is Andrée Pinard Clark in Geneva