Historical perspective of the origins and development of international veterinary public health in the World Health Organisation.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) worked vigorously to implement and develop veterinary public health (VPH) activities during the first twenty years of its existence. These activities have continued and expanded into new fields in subsequent years, and will no doubt continue. The initial challenge was to establish the importance and usefulness of the veterinary profession to human medical and public health problems. Collaborative actions and coordinated research on the major zoonoses, food hygiene and comparative medicine helped to achieve this result along with programmes applying this knowledge in member nations, and particularly developing countries which comprise the vast majority of world population. The VPH discipline must now take into account and adapt its effort to the ever-changing social and economic conditions affecting human health. The veterinary profession can help to improve human health, and VPH structures offer an effective channel for doing so.
Kaplan
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MM
World Health Organisation, Collonge, Switzerland.
Bögel
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D000818:Animals; D014943:Global Health; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history*; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000266:history*; D014944:World Health Organization / Q000266:history*; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000266:history*