Draft:World Health Organization

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The World Health Organization (WHO) is an agency of the United Nations that focuses on international public health issues. Founded in 1948, the WHO seeks to coordinate government responses to current public health crises and disease outbreaks on the international level, and to promote polices that could make a future crisis less damaging- for instance, advocating for universal healthcare for individuals worldwide.

History

When the UN was founded in 1945 following the end of the second World War, its founding members discussed many things they could do to prevent another war and generally make the world a better and safer place. Among the most important of these was the establishment of an international health organization. From 1946 to 1948 an Interim Commission consisting of 18 UN member states took over the Health Division of the UN Relief and Rehabilitation Administration. WHO's Constitution came into effect on April 7, 1948, now celebrated as "World Health Day". Since then, WHO has been instrumental in several international health crises, most notably the eradication of smallpox and poliomyelitis.

COVID-19 pandemic response

See the main article on this topic: COVID-19 pandemic

WHO has directed and informed several countries' responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, most notably when it was at its worst. In January 2020, it published a set of containment protocol documents for the countries of the world to follow, regarding infection mitigation, laboratory tests and risk assessment, along with commodity packages for dealing with the disease and updated travel guidelines advising travelers to avoid the countries hit the hardest by the pandemic (and indeed, eventually to not travel at all until around late 2021). About a month later, it was they who decided to name it "COVID-19", and on March 26th, 2020 they addressed the G20 summit, calling on all of the G20 leaders to "fight, unite and ignite" against COVID-19. They would later help develop vaccines against it, and later recommend drugs to treat it.

Late-2023 Israel-Hamas War

In late 2023, Hamas launched a devastating large-scale assault on Israel (killing 1,200, taking hostages and injuring many)- and worse still, the latter unsurprisingly retaliated with a brutal siege that has already killed over 15,000 additional civilians and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis due to the deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure (including hospitals), with airstrikes and blockades also cutting off access to medical supplies, food, and water. In response to all of this, WHO is now working with all involved parties to try and address the urgent health-related needs, and has called for provision of "life-saving medical supplies" and has regarded the situation in Gaza as "reaching humanity's darkest hour".