WHO is responsible for international health within the United Nations system and provides leadership on global matters. WHO experts produce health guidelines and standards a long with helping countries to address public health issues. The World Health Organization is also a big advocate for health research. Governments across the globe are able to work with WHO to tackle major health problems and to improve the well-being of the different populations. There are 193 countries involved with WHO, including Thailand. This Organization believes that health in the 21st century is a shared responsibility that involves access to essential care and collective defense against transnational threats.
Thailand Ministry of Public Health
This website covers all the current information on public health in Thailand. It specifically provides information on Thailand’s health situations and trends, specific issues, policy advocacy, technology and research, safety, hospital accreditation, related sites, and the health industry.
This website shows a list of all the private hospitals in Thailand. There is no health insurance to cover private hospitals. People pay out of their pocket if they go to a private hospital, which means these hospitals are usually higher quality and have a much shorter wait.
This acronym stands for the United Nations Children’s Fund. This organization started in 1946 after WWII to help starving children throughout the world. UNICEF works in 191 countries and its’ headquarters are in New York. UNICEF helps to prevent HIV/AIDS in children, they work with child survival and development, basic education and gender equality, child protection, and policy advocacy and partnerships. They have helped improve the lives of many children in Thailand.
Research Collaboration Center on Emerging and Re-emerging Infections (RCC-ERI)
This is a research base that is established within the National Institute of Health in cooperation with the Department of Medical Sciences of Thai Ministry of Public Health. A majority of the researchers come from Osaka University in Japan. They focus on infectious diseases in Japan and Southeast Asia. They are working towards establishing a system to control emerging and reemerging infectious diseases based on international cooperation.
Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences (AFRIMS)
AFRIMS has been in Thailand for over 40 year and has been successful in tropical infectious disease research and development. It is a U.S. government organization that colaborates with WHO for diagnostic reference, training, and investigation of emerging infectious diseases. They have many different research missions and challenges. Currently, they are working towards a malaria and HIV/AIDS vaccine.
Thai Health Promotion Foundation
This foundation works towards getting healthy public policies passed, implementing issues-based programs, and using holistic approaches. They are the catalyst for projects that change social environments, lifestyles, values, and positively change the health status of the Thai people. The theme of the Thai Health Promotion Foundation is, “All Thais can attain better lives, in a self-reliant way, through increases in cooperation.” They use the social determinants of health to determine their activities.
Research Institute for Health Sciences (RIHES)
This research institute is part of Chiang Mai university and is mostly funded by the United States and conducts research on an international standard. They focus on prevention and public health problems of the community.
This is a website that gives you health tips if you plan on traveling to Thailand. Since I included links on volunteer organizations that work towards improving the health of the Thai people I thought I would include a link on health tips for traveling to Thailand.
Food and Drug Administration in Thailand
The main role of Thai FDA is to protect consumer’s health. They focus on ensuring safe, quality, and effective health products. These health products include: food, drugs, psychotropic substances, narcotics, medical devices, volatile substances, cosmetics, and hazardous substances in the country.
