The roles of the World Health Organization in tropical disease research.

Abstract

The World Health Organization represents a unique focus of health for countries, particularly in the developing world, and its mission has been to emphasize the importance of primary health care throughout the world. Perhaps less appreciated is the fact that this effort has been supported in the past 10 years by a series of special programs designed to develop new tools and strategies, or “interventions,” ultimately to improve the primary health care effort. This requires new tools, new tools require new knowledge, and new knowledge requires research. To the question of how relevant research is likely to be to the practical goals of an international organization like WHO, let me remind you that it is precisely research that made it possible to discard the enormously expensive “iron lungs” used for poliomyelitis victims, and to develop effective and inexpensive vaccines to prevent the disease.The aims of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), as is implicit from its title, is two‐fold. In an area poorly served by research priorities in the developed nations, one aim is to establish through research and development new weapons against tropical and parasitic diseases primarily in the developing world. The second objective is the training and strengthening of biomedical research capability in tropical countries. Under the leadership of WHO'S Director General, Dr. Halfdan Mahler, and now Dr. H. Nakajima, and my predecessor, Dr. Adetokunbo Lucas, we have tried to build up a strong scientific program, not so much to be measured in financial resources, but in human resources. Scientists from all over the world, fieldworkers, sympathetic officials in ministries of health, development experts, and a dedicated WHO Secretariat have all given generously of their knowledge and time to this program and have dedicated major portions of their activities to problems of tropical diseases. The program started with a scientific approach to six major diseases—malaria, schistosomiasis, trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, filariasis and leprosy—and was intent on bringing the most advanced knowledge of immunology, pharmacology and epidemiology to the tropical diseases. The program is now moving to encompass areas ranging from molecular biology and biotechnology to field research and applications to control. The challenge remains.