[The role of the Middle East in international health cooperation from the beginning of the nineteenth century until the inception of the World Health Organization]

Health cooperation in the region began in 1820 when Muhammad Ali Pasha recruited foreign physicians to establish medical services for the Egyptian army. This paper reviews the subsequent development of public health services in the Middle East. The role of "I'Office international d'Hygiene publique" [OIHP] in Paris is reviewed. In 1926 the Egyptian Quarantine Board became a regional office for the OIHP and was renamed the "Regional Bureau for Epidemiological Intelligence for the Near Easr" in 1938. In 1945, it became the Pan Arab Regional Health Bureau and thereafter the seat of the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean