ABSTRACT
Communicable diseases do not respect national frontiers. Thus, international co-operation in the health sector was one of the first such areas to be developed. When, in 1948, the Constitution of the World Health Organization (WHO) came into force one of its aims was to bring together the various international institutions working on health matters under the United Nations (UN) umbrella. However, this does not mean that the WHO is the only international organization active in this field. If we examine the European geographical and political spaces, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Council of Europe (CoE) and the European Union (EU) are all deeply involved in health issues.
