L'oeil de la Genève Internationale
April 2023

To mark its 75th anniversary, the World Health Organization (WHO) presents the exhibition "Picturing Health, 75 years of progress and challenges" at Quai Wilson from 3 April to 1 May. For over 70 years, the WHO has assigned professional photographers to document its efforts to advance health for all, today constituting a collection of more than 58'000 images. As part of the exhibition, this portrait of a mother and child suffering from smallpox was taken in the early 70s by renowned Indian photojournalist T. Satyan. In 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly endorsed the conclusions of the Global Commission for Certification of Smallpox Eradication that smallpox had been eradicated worldwide and that the return of the virus was unlikely." The Smallpox Archives are, since 2017, registered in the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme.