World Health Organization

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization met in Geneva for its second session from October 25 to November 11, 1948. Some of the more important matters considered from an agenda which comprised more than seventy items included: 1) allocation of $100,000 for an extensive research program on tuberculosis; 2) approval of the report of a committee of experts on venereal disease recommending the large-scale use of penicillin in the treatment of syphilis and calling for WHO to stimulate penicillin production and distribution; 3) authorization to the WHO Director-General to create a Bureau of Medical Supplies to coordinate information and to advise governments on questions concerning the procurement of essential drugs, biological products, and medical equipment; 4) allocation of nearly $1,500,000 for the purpose of giving more direct aid to governments in all parts of the world in the form of field demonstrations and the provision of fellowships for medical and public health personnel; 5) approval of research along lines suggested by the International Congress of Mental Health, including comparative studies, surveys and demonstrations in that field; 6) appointment of Lt. Col. Chandra Mani (India) as director of the WHO Regional Office for South East Asia which was to be established early in 1949 in New Delhi, and 7) authorization to the WHO Director-General to sign a working agreement with the Pan American Sanitary Organization to serve as the WHO regional organization for the Western Hemisphere as soon as fourteen of the twenty-one American republics had completed ratification of the WHO Constitution. The next session of the Executive Board was scheduled for February 21, 1949, also in Geneva.