WHO Archives storage facility

The WHO Archives storage room provides a proper environment for the purpose of storing records and materials that require permanent protection for historic and lifetime storage, upkeep, and preservation.

In 1966, the 19th World Health Assembly requested the Director-General of WHO to initiate action to carry out a world-wide smallpox eradication programme. Historically, the programme remains one of the great achievements of WHO, as in 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly endorsed the conclusions of the Global Commission for Certification of Smallpox Eradication that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide and that the return of the virus was unlikely.

The documents describe the effort to control this endemic disease, which had already begun in 1948 and continued after 1980.

The fonds consists of a wealth of correspondence, notes, decisions and discussions, essentially between the smallpox eradication unit and collaborators in different countries, as well as with national health authorities, laboratories and the medical profession as a whole.

In 2017, the Smallpox Archives have been registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.

The fonds also contains documents from the Regional Offices, posters, photographs and films.