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
Establishment of the World Health Organization and would be managed. The constitution of the World Health Organization had been signed by all 61 countries by 22 July 1946, which an article in "Science" described as "an historic day". It thus became the first specialised agency of the United Nations to which every member subscribed. Its constitution formally came into force on the first World Health Day on 7 April 1948, when it was ratified by the 26th member state. The transfer was authorized by a Resolution of the General Assembly. The "Office International d'Hygiène Publique" was incorporated into the Interim Commission of the World Health Organization