ABSTRACT
The nations of the modern world community have been working together on international health problems for a century and a half. The International Office of Public Health served initially as a clearinghouse through which its member nations could exchange information about the presence and spread of disease. The attitudes of individual nations toward health organizations and their behavior within them are not only a test of the significance and effectiveness of such organizations. They are a mirror of the forces of world politics which affect the field of health, and of the manner in which these forces influence international health organizations. Virtually all nations have come to recognize that health problems must be dealt with on a world scale through a permanent and universal organization. They have demonstrated this by accepting the obligations of membership in World Health Organization and by assigning it global responsibilities for the eradication of major diseases and for the positive promotion of health.
