| World Health Organisation | <organisation> A United Nations agency dealing with issues concerning health and disease around the globe. For cancer, the W.H.O. Has an interesting programme in prevention and palliative care. Acronym: WHO (26 Mar 1998) |
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| world health organization | A specialised agency of the united nations designed as a coordinating authority on international health work; its aim is to promote the attainment of the highest possible level of health by all peoples. (12 Dec 1998) |
| New World leishmaniasis | A grave disease caused by Leishmania braziliensis braziliensis, endemic in southern Mexico and Central and South America, except for the equatorial region of Chile; the organism does not invade the viscera, and the disease is limited to the skin and mucous membranes, the lesions resembling the sores of cutaneous leishmaniasis caused by L. Mexicana or L. Tropica; the chancrous sores heal after a time, but some months or years later, fungating and eroding forms of ulceration may appear on the tongue and buccal or nasal mucosa; many variants of the disease exist, marked by differences in distribution, vector, epidemiology, and pathology, which suggest that it may in fact be caused by a number of closely related aetiological agents. See: espundia. Synonym: American leishmaniasis, leishmaniasis americana, nasopharyngeal leishmaniasis, New World leishmaniasis. (05 Mar 2000) |