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
Public Health Emergency of International Concern stated that "there is scientific consensus that Zika virus is a cause of microcephaly and Guillain–Barré syndrome." This declaration was lifted on November 18, 2016. PHEIC can also make the news when it is "not" invoked, as has been the case to date with MERS. Public Health Emergency of International Concern A Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) is a formal declaration by the World Health Organization (WHO). The declaration is promulgated by that body's Emergency Committee operating under International Health Regulations (IHR). First introduced in 2005, to date there have been four PHEIC declarations. This statement designates a