The World Health Organization was established in 1948 as a specialized agency of the
United Nations serving as the directing and coordinating authority for international
health matters and public health. One of WHO’s constitutional functions is to
provide objective and reliable information and advice in the field of human health, a
responsibility that it fulfils in part through its extensive programme of publications.
The Organization seeks through its publications to support national health strategies
and address the most pressing public health concerns of populations around the
world. To respond to the needs of Member States at all levels of development, WHO
publishes practical manuals, handbooks and training material for specific categories
of health workers; internationally applicable guidelines and standards; reviews and
analyses of health policies, programmes and research; and state-of-the-art consensus
reports that offer technical advice and recommendations for decision-makers.
These books are closely tied to the Organization’s priority activities, encompassing
disease prevention and control, the development of equitable health systems based
on primary health care, and health promotion for individuals and communities.
Progress towards better health for all also demands the global dissemination and
exchange of information that draws on the knowledge and experience of all WHO’s
Member countries and the collaboration of world leaders in public health and the
biomedical sciences.
To ensure the widest possible availability of authoritative information and guidance on
health matters, WHO secures the broad international distribution of its publications
and encourages their translation and adaptation. By helping to promote and protect
health and prevent and control disease throughout the world, WHO’s books
contribute to achieving the Organization’s principal objective – the attainment by all
people of the highest possible level of health.
The WHO Technical Report Series makes available the findings of various international
groups of experts that provide WHO with the latest scientific and technical advice on
a broad range of medical and public health subjects. Members of such expert groups
serve without remuneration in their personal capacities rather than as representatives
of governments or other bodies; their views do not necessarily reflect the decisions or
the stated policy of WHO.