World Health Organization as a means to reduce traffic-related injuries. The WHO has also worked on global initiatives in surgery, including emergency and essential surgical care, trauma care, and safe surgery. The WHO Surgical Safety Checklist is in current use worldwide in the effort to improve patient safety. The World Health Organization's primary objective in natural and man-made emergencies is to coordinate with member states and other stakeholders to "reduce avoidable loss of life and the burden of disease and disability." On 5 May 2014, WHO announced that the spread of polio was a world health emergency – outbreaks of the disease in
21st century Madagascar plague outbreaks in the capital Antananarivo there were two confirmed cases, including one death. On 4 November 2014, the Ministry of Health of Madagascar reported the outbreak to the World Health Organization. A more recent outbreak of plague in Madagascar began in August 2017 and expanded rapidly, with about two-thirds of cases transmitted person-to-person as pneumonic plague, the most dangerous form of the disease. The death toll of 124 by 20 October exceeded that of previous outbreaks. More than half of cases have been recorded in the capital of Antananarivo and the main port of Toamasina, the largest cities in Madagascar. Nine