World Health Assembly

No medical or therapeutic procedure comes without some risk to the patient. All possible steps are taken to ensure safely, quahty and efficacy of vaccines and immunological products (Chapter 15). The risks associated with immunization procedures must be constantly reviewed and balanced against the risks of, and associated with, contracting the disease, hi this respect, smallpox vaccination in the UK was abandoned in the mid 1970s as the risks associated with vaccination then exceeded the predicted number of deaths that would follow importation of the disease. Shortly after this, in 1980, The World Health Assembly pronounced the world to be free of smallpox. Similarly, the incidence of paralytic poliomyelitis in the USA and UK in 1996 was low but the majority of cases related to vaccine use. As the worldwide elimination of poliomyelitis approaches, there is much debate as to the value of the vaccine outside of an endemic area. 

Although at onetime it was found worldwide, it was declared eradicated by the World Health Assembly in May 1980. There are only two known repositories of virus remaining, one in the United States and one in Russia. Humans are the only reservoir and vector. This is a biosafety level 4 agent. 

The last known naturally occurring case of smallpox occurred in Somalia in 1977. In May 1980, the World Health Assembly certified that the world was free of naturally occurring smallpox. By the 1960s, because of vaccination programs and quarantine regulations, the risk for importation of smallpox into the United States had been reduced. As a result, recommendations for routine smallpox vaccination were rescinded in 1971. In 1976, the recommendation for routine smallpox vaccination of health-care workers was also discontinued. In 1982, the only active licensed producer of vaccinia vaccine in the United States discontinued production for general use, and in 1983, distribution to the civilian population was discontinued. All military personnel continued to be vaccinated, but that practice ceased in 1990. Since January 1982, smallpox vaccination has not been required for international travelers, and International Certificates of Vaccination forms no longer include a space to record smallpox vaccination. 

WHO is governed by the UN s 192 Member States through the World Health Assembly. The Health Assembly is composed of representatives from WHO s Member States. The main tasks of the World Health Assembly are to approve the WHO program and the budget for the following biennium and to decide major policy questions (WHO 2006). 

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (lARC) was established in May 1965, through a resolution of the 18th World Health Assembly, as an extension of the WHO (LARC 2006). 

World Health Organization (1984). Prevention and control of vitamin A deficiency and Xerophthalmia. WHO 37th World Health Assembly, agenda item 20.A37/A. Conference paper No. 6. 

World Health Organization (1992). National strategies for overcoming micronutrient malnutrition. WHO 45th World Health Assembly, provisional agenda item 21.A45/17. 

In 2003 the 55th World Health Assembly resolved (WHA resolution 55.18) as follows Recognizing the need to promote patient safety as a fundamental principle of all health systems, [The WHO] urges Member States ... 

Krug, E. G. Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High- and Upper-Middle-Income Countries.The Journal of the American Medical Association, vol. 280, August 5, 1998, p. 401. Reports that the 49th World Health Assembly has declared violence a worldwide public health problem. Using data provided by health officials, a study concludes that firearms death rates are much higher in the United States and that types of death (murder or suicide) as well as rates vary with national income. 

Tor additional details on guiding principles involved in coining USAN for antibodies, please see World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution 4619. 

The original impetus for the Programme came from World Health Assembly resolutions and the recommendations of the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment. Subsequently, the work became an integral part of the International Programme on Chemical... 

Belizzi, M. (2002) Childhood Obesity The Emerging Global Epidemic, World Health Assembly, International Obesity TaskForce (IOTF). 

Interest in the nontuberculous (atypical) mycobacteria, especially members of the Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium intracellulare, Mycobacterium scro-fulaceum complex, has also been stimulated by AIDS. Infection with the M. avium complex is seen in up to 50% of patients with AIDS in some areas of the world.3 A review of U.S. cases found an overall 5.5% incidence of M. avium complex in AIDS patients.3 Leprosy, however, is clearly on the wane, although it remains a substantial problem.4 Its prevalence has been steadily diminished to a present-day worldwide figure of about 3 million registered cases and 5.5 million estimated cases, owing in part to a most effective multiple-drug regimen. The World Health Assembly has dedicated itself to the technical elimination of leprosy (that is, a prevalence of less than 1 per 10,000 population) by the turn of the century. 

WHO (1999). Executive Board Resolution EB103.R1, 26 January. Tabled by the World Health Assembly, 52nd session, 17-25 May 1999, Articles 1.3 and 2.7. 

Fifty-fifth World Health Assembly. (2002). Smallpox eradication Destruction of Variola virus stocks. Resolution WHASS.IS. Geneva, Switzerland World Health Organization. 

The last case of smallpox occurred in 1977, and the eradication of smallpox was declared complete by the World Health Assembly in 1980. Since then, routine smallpox vaccination has ceased in all countries, because it is no longer required and because serious adverse reactions sometimes occur after both primary vaccination and revaccination (SED-8, 709) (SED-11, 685) (SEDA-1, 247) (SEDA-3, 262) (SEDA-4, 227) (SEDA-6, 289) (SEDA-13, 289) (SEDA-15, 357) (1-5). However, the threat of bioterrorism has made it necessary to consider prevention and control... 

At that time there was the need to align with the worldwide movement regarding the issue of quality for pharmaceutical products. The World Health Assembly (WHA) discussed the issue of quality of drugs on many occcisions as the distribution of substandard products continued to increase significantly in developing countries. 

World Health Assembly unanimously adopts a Global Strategy for Health for All by the year 2000. Affirmed that the major social goal of governments and WHO should be the attainment of a level of health by all people of the world that would permit them to lead socially and economically productive lives, http //www.who.org/... 

Forty-sixth World Health Assembly Resolution on Nonproprietary Names for Pharmaceutical Substances (WHA46.19) (1993) World Health Organization, Geneva, (website)... 

The following procedure shall be followed by the World Health Organization (hereinafter also referred to as WHO ) in the selection of recommended INNs for pharmaceutical substances, in accordance with resolution WHA3.11 of the World Health Assembly, and in the substitution of such names. 

D. Satcher, The framework Convention on tobacco control A report from the 52nd World Health Assembly, /AMA, 282 424 (August 4), 1999. 

WHO, 2005 The Fifty-eight World Health Assembly resolution containing the Revised International Health Regulation (document A58/55), 23 May 2005. 

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