WHO maintains field operating programs in addition to these central technical services. Accelerated transport speeds and the increased volume of international trade and travel have made it apparent that quarantine measures alone cannot prevent the transmission of diseases across national boundaries and from continent to continent. Hence, WHO is expanding its activities in a positive approach to control disease at its source, by providing assistance to national health authorities. The use of consultants, demonstration teams, and fellowships is becoming increasingly effective. Projects directed toward the control of communicable diseases and toward improving maternal and child-health nutrition and environmental sanitation are now in operation.

Through this mode of operation, several objectives are being attained. First, by working with and through the national health service of a country, that service is strengthened and thus becomes more able to carry out further health programs by its own efforts; next, by attacking disease in this local way, not only do the peoples of the specific area benefit, but the rest of the world is afforded better promise of protection against spread of disease than could possibly be expected from quarantine measures alone.

Antibiotics and such modern insecticides as DDT are bringing a fresh approach and spectacular results in the control of diseases in all countries, and the demonstration teams are making full use of the latest techniques in planning and carrying out health projects. A part of this basic pattern calls for the training of "parallel" teams of local health personnel in modern techniques, simultaneously with the demonstrations, thus assuring that the programs will be continued after the international team departs.

Malaria teams are operating in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Iran, and French Somaliland. In Pakistan rice production has been increased 15 percent in the area of WHO activities which has been attributed to the malaria-control work started in 1949. Malaria-control programs not only control malaria but result in eliminating lice and other vermin from houses. In working toward freeing the home of insects, the risk from diseases such as plague, yellow fever, relapsing fever, dysentery, and typhus is also reduced. The WHO Regional Office for the Americas is completing a comprehensive survey of malaria throughout the Americas.

Venereal-disease teams are operating in Yugoslavia, where in one year 60 local teams have been trained to carry on the program; in India, where 14 local teams are now trained; in Afghanistan, Egypt, the Americas, and certain areas of the Pacific.

During 1950, tuberculosis campaigns continued in virtually all parts of the world through the joint efforts of WHO, UNICEF, and the Scandinavian Red Cross Societies. Thus far over 25,000,000 children and young adults have been tested and approximately 12,000,000 vaccinated. Training centers have been set up in India, Burma, Ceylon, and Thailand to assist in control of tuberculosis, often called the "white plague."

WHO has responded to appeals from national health authorities during emergencies. In 1950 vaccines and medical equipment were flown to Peru, following a violent earthquake; medical services and equipment were provided to Chile and Ecuador during poliomyelitis outbreaks; a malaria team in Thailand altered its activity and undertook efforts at plague control, when this pestilence threatened a part of the country; and public-health teams were sent to Korea to work under the Unified Command to provide protection against epidemic outbreak and to undertake health rehabilitation of the civilian population.

In working toward achieving its long-range objective of strengthening national health services, WHO has sponsored or assisted in sponsoring seminars, symposiums, and technical conferences of regional and world-wide scope. Following a serious outbreak of rabies in Puerto Rico, a rabies conference was held in Jamaica in August to study the broad problem of controlling the spread of the disease to other parts of the Caribbean area; international syphilis seminars were held in Helsinki and Paris; a seminar on infant metabolism was held in the Netherlands; a malaria conference was held in Kampala, Uganda; and a medical symposium on tropical diseases was held in Beirut.

WHO Consultants have advised health authorities in many countries on sanitation problems, nursing, hospital administration, communicable-disease control, and public-health administration. The fellowship program has been expanded, with emphasis on group training at the regional level, where language customs, medical facilities, and public-health problems are similar to those that the trainee will encounter upon his return to his own country.

Important progress has been made in the coordination of research. A network of influenza-reporting laboratories has been established which reports prevalent influenza strains to the International Influenza Center, located in England. This center collates the reports and watches for any unusual occurrence of epidemic influenza. The network furnishes the center with strains for the preparation of vaccines. In addition the Tuberculosis Research Office in Copenhagen is evaluating the results of the world-wide BCG campaign, and it is

hoped that this evaluation will contribute to the control of the disease. The Salmonella and Escherichia Center in Denmark keeps type strains of the organisms and determines their world distribution.

3. Social-Welfare Activities

Activities of the United Nations in the field of social welfare include a variety of services. Limited funds are being applied to the most urgent needs where results will most directly serve the aims of the United Nations.

During 1950, through its Advisory Social Welfare Services program, the United Nations provided to governments which requested services the following types of assistance: (1) Twenty-seven expert consultants in various fields of social welfare served in an advisory capacity to governmental authorities in 15 countries. For example, an expert in public assistance and related services was sent to Egypt for 5 months to assist the Government in the preparation of new and comprehensive social-security legislation. (2) Fellowships were granted to 184 welfare officials from 35 countries to enable them to study and observe practices and procedures in other countries. Fortyone of these fellows came to the United States as their country of choice for training. Arrangements were made for them to observe the operation of United States programs in various sections of the country in rural and urban areas. Fields of observation included social insurance, family and child welfare, juvenile courts, and housing. Demonstration equipment, such as prosthetic appliances, literature, and films, were made available to 11 countries. (3) Another type of service provided under this program was the conducting of regional seminars to enable social-welfare personnel to exchange information and ideas regarding social-welfare practices in other countries. A seminar was held for countries of the Middle East in November-December 1950. This seminar was attended by representatives from most of the governments in the area and was a continuation of the one held in Beirut in 1949. The seminar dealt with community organization with special reference to rural welfare services. At the request of the Government of India, the United Nations organized a 3-day conference on physically handicapped children which was held at Jamshedpur.

The amount authorized for the Advisory Social Welfare Services program for 1950 was $610,500, exclusive of certain administrative costs, or approximately the same amount as for previous years.

In November 1950 the General Assembly, acting upon the advice of the Social Commission and the Economic and Social Council, revised the original 1946 resolution authorizing the Advisory Social Welfare Services program. Among the changes approved was the shift in emphasis of the program to give special attention to less developed When the program was first established emphasis was given to war-devastated areas. The new terms also provide that scholarships as well as fellowships will be granted to enable a limited number of persons from countries which lack adequate training facilities to receive academic training in social welfare.

areas.

While the provision of direct assistance to governments through the Advisory Social Welfare Services program is recognized as being of first importance in the program of social-welfare activity of the United Nations, there are other activities, such as studies and reports and the drafting of conventions and model agreements, which are necessary supporting services. During 1950 the Social Commission, the Economic and Social Council, and the General Assembly reviewed the program of social-welfare activities of the United Nations and redefined the broad fields in which work should be accomplished as well as outlined the specific projects and studies to be undertaken in 1950, 1951, and the years immediately following. The fields in which direct assistance and supporting services are provided are (a) planning, organization, and administration for social welfare; (b) community, family, and child welfare; (c) social defense, which includes work in the field of prevention and treatment of crime and suppression of prostitution; (d) rehabilitation of the handicapped; and (e) housing and town and country planning.

As examples of the types of supporting services in these various fields of work, as distinct from services or direct assistance to governments described above under the Advisory Social Welfare Services program, the Social Commission in 1950 prepared a draft declaration of the rights of the child. A declaration on this subject had been adopted by the League of Nations, and the Commission's task was to bring this earlier declaration into conformity with modern concepts and practices in child welfare. The Economic and Social Council referred the draft for consideration to the Human Rights Commission, which has included it on the agenda of its meeting in April 1951. Other projects undertaken during the year relating to the field of community, family, and child welfare include a study of methods of administering assistance to the needy in various countries and the preparation of a convention on enforcement of maintenance obligations imposed on a husband or father whose dependents are living in another country.

In the field of prevention and treatment of crime a number of studies are in preparation. These include standard rules for the treatment of prisoners; standard classification of offenses and uniform crime statistics; probation and related methods of dealing with offenders; juvenile delinquency in all its phases; and detention of adults prior to sentence. Because of the nature of these studies their completion will require several years. Of special significance in this field was the agreement reached between the United Nations and the International Penal and Penitentiary Commission (IPPC) whereby the functions and activities of the latter would be transferred to the United Nations and IPPC itself dissolved as an independent organization. Certain details are still to be worked out, but the transfer should take place before the end of 1951.

Similarly, in the other fields of housing, rehabilitation of the handicapped, and planning, organization, and administration of social welfare, the United Nations has under way in various stages of completion specific studies which will enable the United Nations and the individual governments concerned to formulate policies and plan future action on a sounder basis. In addition certain services are being provided by the United Nations on a continuing basis, such as the Housing and Town and Country Planning Bulletin, the Migration Bulletin, and the Social Welfare Information Series on Current Literature and National Conferences.

Many of the activities described above are carried out in cooperation with specialized agencies such as ILO, WHO, IRO, FAO, and UNESCO. There is no specialized agency which is directly concerned with the broad field of social welfare, however, and thus the United Nations Secretariat has the major chore of responsibility in this field.

4. Narcotic Drug Control

The work of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs during 1950 was concentrated upon the problem of limiting world production of opium to medical and scientific requirements.

Encouraged by the progress made in November 1949 at Ankara, where the representatives of the principal opium-producing countries decided that an international opium agreement might be based on estimated requirements, the allocation of percentage shares among the producers, and an international monopoly for buying and selling opium, the Economic and Social Council on July 4, 1950, invited the governments of the principal drug-manufacturing countries to send