World Health Organization

The Executive Board of the World Health Organization (WHO) held its 26th session in Geneva from October 25 to November 4, 1960, under the chairmanship of Dr. H. M. Penido. Dr. M. G. Candau, Director-General of WHO, reported on WHO assistance to the Republic of the Congo (Leopoldville) deriving from the request of the Secretary-General and the Security Council in July 1960 that WHO take part in the UN emergency program in the Congo. Twenty-eight WHO staff members had immediately been assigned to the Congo, and within a few weeks 28 medical teams had been sent by 25 national Red Cross, Red Crescent, and Red Lion and Sun Societies as the result of an appeal by WHO to the International Committee of the Red Cross and the League of Red Cross Societies. These teams made it possible to get a number of hospitals operating again in the cities and in the interior. To meet the long-range medical needs of the Congo where there were as yet no native doctors, assistants medicaux were selected for further training and given WHO fellowships to attend medical schools so that they might become fully qualified doctors. To cope with the crisis the UN guaranteed the funds necessary for WHO to engage 130 health workers of all categories to work for the Congolese government. Dr. Candau concluded his report by emphasizing that, if political stability and normal administration could be effectuated, the medical problems of the Congo would not be difficult to solve; the preventative work carried out under the Belgian administration could then be resumed and the threat of the spread of disease effectively averted.