World Health Organization

Flag (and seal) of the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
Type	Specialized agency of the United Nations
State	Geneva, Switzerland
Status	Disbanded
Seen in Series	Fear the Walking Dead
Issue/Episode	Promotional material
Real-world Counterpart/Filming Location	World Health Organization

The World Health Organization (WHO) is a body of the United Nations concerned with world public health. It is referenced in promotional material released for Fear the Walking Dead.

Several pre-pandemic efforts were made in alerting all medical staff on the dangers of the new contagion, giving proper dispositions on how to treat recently deceased individuals.

Outbreak

On 15 April 2010, the Center for Disease Control discovered a new, small and unknown virus. In the following months, the virus has been reported to the World Health Organization in the list of "possible catastrophic contagions", a comprehensive list of all pathogens that developed significant characteristics which are able to be transmitted to human and create a catastrophe of global proportions. WHO research teams failed to determine if the virus was human made or artificial; squads at la Biomédicine DDMI managed to hide the evidence of their involvement, which later emerged as France was the only one that knew how to slow down the contagion.

The World Health Organization, along with the CDC, declared a global pandemic on August 27, 2010.

Early in the outbreak, WHO releases a memo to all medical staff concerning the recently deceased. This implies that the outbreak, while not well known by the general public, was considered serious enough to be discussed at an international level. The WHO released a six page memo (only the first page of which is seen). The directives it sets forth can be seen in operation at the Temple Community Hospital where Nicholas Clark is treated after his accident. Some of the directives to medical staff include:

The MEMO issued by WHO

• In an instance where a patient has a Do Not Resuscitate Form (DNR), the DNR is to be ignored. It is in the best interest of the medical staff to keep the patient alive.
• If, within a minute of death, all efforts to revive the patient fail, life saving techniques are to cease and the patient is to be considered dead. The body is to be moved to the morgue. If the morgue is more than fifteen minutes away, the body is to be restrained.
• If the deceased regains signs of life AFTER life saving techniques have ceased, the body is to be considered a biohazard and disposed of.

Following Operation Cobalt in the United States, the WHO has likely ceased to exist as a result of the disbanding of the United Nations.

Trivia

• The issuing of the WHO memo predates both the beginning of season one of both The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, and also public knowledge of the 'walker' epidemic. It can be assumed, therefore, that when Dr. Jenner is talking about the length of time that the epidemic has been spreading, considering that he is counting from the first 'patient' the CDC is aware of, it is several days/weeks before 'day zero' in either show.