ABSTRACT
International health cooperation started during the nineteenth century as a diplomatic initiative to control the spread of communicable diseases. The first agreements among national authorities were prompted by the need for measures to protect trade. Therefore, public health regulations occupied an important place in the international agenda. Preventive medicine and most national initiatives in urban and rural districts depended upon the technical reports and expert advice from transnational experts.
International diplomacy around health played a prominent role in this process of international negotiation. The increasingly widespread political concern about the negative effects of poor health on social stability and national economies influenced the creation of scientific networks in the fields of hygiene, health policies, tuberculosis, venereal diseases, children’s and mothers’ health, and nutrition. International networks of experts contributed new forms of political and scientific legitimacy to national authorities. International experts opened negotiations on biological and therapeutic standards, supported the creation of national laboratories, institutes, and schools of public health, helped in the implementation of sanitary campaigns, enabled the establishment of expert committees, organised international conferences, and stressed technical reports and sanitary interventions.
The International Health Board/Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, League of Nations Health Organization, Union of Red Cross Societies, Office Internationale d’Hygiène Publique, together with International Labour Office, International Institute of Agriculture (IIA), and UNRRA (1942-1946), coordinated medical relief and fields of expertise. Humanitarian and philanthropic institutions – particularly the Rockefeller Foundation – promoted public health policies with funds, grants, and campaigns in various countries.
