With hundreds of millions of dollars in procurement secured by U.S. businesses each year – more contracts, in fact, than the U.S. pays in dues to the WHO – the WHO is a proud purchaser of American-made goods and services. And when it comes to helping American manufacturers accelerate and deliver cutting-edge medical technologies, the Food and Drug Administration works closely with the WHO Prequalification (PQ) Program, which approves products to help accelerate and expand access in countries around the world.

As a leader in the WHO, the U.S. wields tremendous influence in shaping global health policy and the national health agendas of participating countries within the WHO. U.S. funding and engagement also ensures that influence from countries like China and Russia is kept at bay as the U.S. advances global policies consistent with U.S. interests, values and global health priorities. U.S. leadership has also facilitated vital dialogue and collaboration between the WHO and U.S. civil society and the private sector, making sure a range of American perspectives are considered in setting global health policies.

Through America’s continued investment, WHO has grown into the world’s largest organization working to stop diseases at their source, before they become costly and deadly outbreaks here in the U.S. WHO initiatives have been critical in protecting Americans from the scourge of polio, measles, Ebola, tuberculosis and many other devastating public health threats.

The WHO partners with 68 U.S. research centers across 18 states and the District of Columbia to support health research and innovation in the U.S. and globally. This includes the Centers for Disease Control, with whom the WHO has partnered for three decades to provide global support for biosafety, biosecurity and testing capacity for priority diseases. The CDC also works with the WHO to serve as the premier global reference lab for polio, measles and rubella diseases, ensuring that the WHO has the laboratory capacity and supplies to detect outbreaks and measure the impact of immunization activities on diseases.

The benefit of WHO’s disease monitoring capabilities is felt far beyond specific diseases. Every day, American researchers and clinicians rely on the WHO’s monitoring systems, which support the U.S. and global community by sounding the alarm as soon as outbreaks are identified. Early detection allows countries to stop disease occurrences before they spread farther and become deadlier and more expensive to contain.

Detection, vaccination and antiviral therapies are the pillars of the U.S. strategy for influenza prevention and control for a disease that infects an estimated 36 million people in the U.S. each year – killing nearly 80,000. The WHO headquarters and regional offices manage global monitoring and laboratory networks worldwide and here in the U.S., for which the U.S. provides extensive technical assistance. With funding from the CDC, the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISR) serves of the largest system in the world to detect flu viruses and shape the development of annual vaccines.

Working hand-in-hand with the U.S. – especially the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services – the WHO maintains the International Classification of Disease (ICD). This essential database is used every day by American clinicians to properly diagnose and monitor healthcare trends at the individual and population levels.

Hundreds of immunization experts at the WHO lead infectious disease prevention, monitoring and outbreak response. This workforce is vital to protecting Americans at home and abroad from deadly and debilitating diseases by stopping the spread of pathogens before they become dangerous and costly to control. WHO experts – including hundreds of Americans – also amplify the investment of a broad range of other global health priorities that the U.S. has led for decades, including polio eradication, malaria treatment and control and HIV/Aids research and response.

The WHO has accelerated decades of progress towards global polio eradication. Through U.S. funding, WHO implements global disease monitoring for the polio virus in areas where America does not have the capacity to reach, including polio hotspots across Asia. Without these detection capabilities, polio could surge to 200,000 cases annually within a decade – inevitably reaching American communities.

Measles is one of the most infectious human diseases on the planet. A single case can generate as many as 18 additional cases among unvaccinated people. The WHO provides global measles detection and response capabilities through a network of over 700 labs, partnering to provide rapid response during outbreaks and technical assistance to nations to build stronger immunization systems.