ABSTRACT
A WHO Interim Commission came into operation in 1946 prior to the establishment of the WHO proper in 1948 and had notable success in controlling a cholera epidemic in Egypt in 1947. The organization was from the start marked by an independent streak and it was agreed that the term ‘United Nations’ should not feature in its official title, and that it would have a far more decentralized structure than any other UN specialized agency. The decision to devolve a great deal of the work of the WHO to six regions (Africa, the Americas, Europe, Eastern Mediterranean, South East Asia and Western Pacific2) was partly a practical decision as it facilitated the continuation of the world’s oldest health IGO as the American arm of the new global body.
