The WHO in the former Yugoslavia

In July 1992, In former Yugoslavia the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a humanitarian assistance programme. The programme was aimed at maintaining public health in the war-affected areas with 4 million refugees and displaced persons, over 200,000 dead, at least twice as many wounded, over 60,000 patients in need of rehabilitation and at least 1 million persons with deep psychological scars. The programme had 4 objectives: public health Interventions (Induding health and nutrition monitoring), physical and psychosodal rehabilitation, distribution of medical supplies and health care reform. A key feature was a systematic assessment of the needs of the affected population by means of health and nutrition monitoring which helped to target the assistance. For some areas the WHO'S medical supplies were the only source of much needed drugs. With the health authorities WHO initiated a health care reform, to enable the qualitatively reasonably good but top-heavy and expensive health care systems Inherited from the socialist era to recuperate and survive. The WHO programme has helped avert major epidemics, prevented scurvy and rickets and helped people to survive the cold of the winter.