Governmental Agencies: Introduction
World Health Organizations
Although the individual is ultimately responsible for health decisions, governments play a major role in disease control and prevention as well as provide health information and services to citizens. Whether it is a local health agency or an international agency, each is working to fulfill a mission which will contribute to the overall health of the people it serves.
For most of us, health decisions are individual decisions. However, for much of the world, resources and information are not available for people to have the option of making their own health decisions. It is for this reason that many of the international public health agencies exist. International health agencies attempt to meet the health needs of the developing countries of the world. In that capacity, they work to track disease, conduct research, prevent the spread of disease, and provide nutritional, financial, and medical resources and services across nations and borders so that health information and services reach the people they need to reach.
In this section, you will examine some international agencies and assess their contribution to international health issues.
