The World Health Organization, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is one of the original agencies of the United Nations and acts as a coordinating authority on international public health.  The WHO constitution states that the organization’s objective “is the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health.” Its major task is to combat disease, especially key infectious diseases, and to promote the general health of the people of the world.

Poster, Health is more than the absence of disease. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization, Division of Public Information, 1958.

The upper portion of this black and white poster features a photo in which a girl shows a paper to a man who sits behind a podium. A woman with crossed arms sits in the background and observes. Text reads, “The Constitution of the World Health Organization defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. WHO is interested, therefore, in studies undertaken on the mental health and development of the child.”