Set up in 1948, the primary role of the World Health Organization (WHO) is to direct and coordinate international health within the United Nations system.
Its main areas of work are health systems; health through the life-course; noncommunicable and communicable diseases; preparedness, surveillance and response; and corporate services.
WHO works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. Its goal is to ensure that a billion more people have universal health coverage, to protect a billion more people from health emergencies, and provide a further billion people with better health and well-being.
More than 7000 people from more than 150 countries work for the Organization in 150 WHO offices in countries, territories and areas, six regional offices, at the Global Service Centre in Malaysia and at the headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
