The United States of America and the World Health Organization work together on global health challenges to make the world a safer and healthier place.

WHO is grateful to the United States for its leadership in global health, including health security, polio, primary health care and maternal child health. When people are healthy, they can learn, work and support themselves and their families. Good health leads to economic prosperity, which in turn promotes a path to self-reliance and resilience.

By partnering with WHO, the United States helps keep polio at bay and brings the goal of eradicating the disease closer to realization. By focusing on diseases such as TB, Malaria and HIV the United States protects the world's most vulnerable populations affected by these diseases.

For decades the United States has been a committed partner in global health, a pillar for economic prosperity. WHO recognizes and thanks the American people for their generosity.

WHO is proud to partner with The United States of America, as the number one donor for the 2016-2017 programme budget and for many previous years. 

The American people generously invested over US$ 945.6 million in WHO for the 2016-2017 period. Contributions from the United States were made up of over 76% of voluntary funding.

US funding has stopped the spread of disease and helped people stay healthy in thousands of humanitarian crisis and disease outbreaks including:

• The Ebola response in Democratic Republic Congo 2018 - Thanks to The United States support over 30,000 people have been vaccinated and thousands of contacts traced in an effort to contain the disease. The U.S. government’s lead agency on biomedical infectious disease research (NIAID) collaborated with WHO and partners to develop a randomized controlled trial of therapeutics for the latest Ebola outbreaks in DRC. Read more

• The WHO and partners in Afghanistan have reached over 800,000 people with health services such as first aid, surgery, vaccination, skilled birth attendants and psychosocial support. This is possible because of partners like USAID.

• In Iraq, thanks to the support of partners like USAID's Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance, ambulances were provided to support 1,500 people per month who are now able to reach hospitals and get care when they need it.
  

WHO works with over 800 collaborating centres across the world, 82 of which are hosted in the United States. The CDC has 21 Collaborating Centers in total, including 3 in the Division of High-Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. 

CDC’s Influenza Division has served as a WHO Collaborating Center (CC) for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Control of Influenza in Atlanta, Georgia since 1956 and is the largest global center supporting public health interventions to control and prevent pandemic and seasonal influenza. USAID's Emerging Pandemic Threats 2 Programme helps minimize the global impact of existing pandemic influenza threats, particularly from the H5N1 highly pathogenic avian flu.

In addition, CDC’s Division of Global Health Protection serves as the CC for Global Public Informatics, the CC for Biosafety and Biosecurity, and the CC for the International Health Regulations.WHO Collaborating Center for Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, CDC’s Viral Special Pathogens Branch supports WHO and Member States in the early diagnosis, rapid identification, and epidemiologic investigation of global high-risk pathogen outbreaks like Ebola, Nipah, or Marburg virus. CDC’s experts provide technical guidance for national laboratories involved in outbreak response as well as onsite laboratory diagnostic support with staff and equipment when possible. These engagements further advance the world’s ability to prevent, detect, and respond to a wide range of known and unknown health threats.

The US Department of Health and Human Services, National Institute of Health, serves as a CC for Global Cancer Control and health and the environment.

Revered academic institutions in the USA also contribute to WHO through collaborating centers including Boston University, Columbia University, Johns Hopkins, National Cancer Institute, New York University, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Yale University. 

The US collaborating centres focus on such health topics as cancer, occupational health, communicable diseases, nutrition, mental health, chronic diseases and health technologies.

Strong regulatory systems are critical to any well-functioning health system. Across the globe, access to safe, effective, high-quality and affordable medical products is essential for people’s well-being and the ability to lead healthy and productive lives. Similarly, access to safe and nutritious foods is essential for a person’s growth, development, and general well-being. 

WHO and the US Food and Drug Administration collaborate to increase awareness of the critical role of smooth and robust regulatory systems for protecting public health, economic viability, and preparedness to respond to public health emergencies.

WHO and the U.S. FDA work together on several projects including: WHO's Global Monitoring System for Substandard and Falsified Medicines, WHO/FAO’s work on foods safety systems strengthening, and WHO’s Global Bench-marking Tool to assess and strengthen regulatory systems around the world.  These partnerships with WHO have been the cornerstone of FDA’s efforts to support regulatory systems strengthening, especially in low-and-middle income countries.

WHO leads the health sector response to HIV and viral hepatitis through global dialogue and implementation of the Global Health Sector Strategies on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections, 2016‒2021.

Over the past 10 years, WHO has worked closely to support the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) objectives under the Joint Strategic Framework of WHO and PEPFAR Cooperation on HIV/AIDS.   

Shared priorities of the Framework have enabled country level impact through joint technical assistance on: 1) Advocacy and policy coherence;  2) Increasing awareness of HIV status among people living with HIV (PLWH);  3) Enrolling PLWH on antiretroviral therapy (ART);  4) Sustained treatment and care through optimal service delivery models that leads to viral suppression;  5) Accelerating pediatric treatment and elimination; 6) Prevention and services for the most affected; 7) Addressing comorbidities; and 8) ensuring data-driven programme improvement. 

In 2016-2017, funding to WHO was used to implement HIV/AIDS programming in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Swaziland and the United Republic of Tanzania, among others. 

An example of a joint WHO/USA collaboration in the HIV treatment area was the launch and support for early adopting countries in introducing a new, high-quality antiretroviral therapy in 2017. The initiative enables delivery of one pill, once-a-day generic fixed-dose combination ART at a reduced price in Kenya, South Africa and over 90 low and middle-income countries thanks to an agreement made possible by USAID, PEPFAR and other partners. The dedicated drug review process by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ensured delivery of safe, effective and quality antiretrovirals. The agreement provided a new treatment option to reach the most people living with HIV with the goal of reaching epidemic control.

WHO and CDC worked collaboratively to develop the AIDS Free Framework, which focuses on the scale-up of care and treatment for children and adolescents in countries with the biggest pediatric treatment gaps. WHO and CDC also reviewed and contributed to an early childhood development framework and guideline development in the context of HIV exposed uninfected infants. Additionally, WHO has worked with CDC on a modeling project that forecasts global production commodities needed for pediatric antiretroviral medications.

WHO programming supports USAID’s target of saving 15 million children and 600,000 women by 2020.WHO applauds USAID and CDC’s initiatives to prevent child and maternal deaths through strong maternal and child health programmes, HIV treatment and comprehensive care of HIV-exposed infants, malaria control, family planning, nutrition and water and sanitation programmes.

WHO and USAID collaborate with other partners in the Network for Improving Quality of Care for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health.