ABSTRACT
International cooperation in health issues has a long history. Responding to the nineteenth-century tendency of countries to impose inconsistent quarantine measures, leaders sought increased cooperation largely through periodic conferences on specific diseases. The United States was a frequent initiator and regular attendant at these meetings. Following World War II there was broad agreement among the victors, including the United States, concerning the need to continue this international approach to health activities both to protect the domestic populace from infectious diseases transmissable across national boundaries and to improve the health status of less developed countries. With the establishment of the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1948, members agreed to actively promote and pursue the objective of “the attainment by all people of the highest possible level of health.” The undertaking was ambitious especially considering that health in the WHO preamble was defined as a “state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO 1958:459).
