Recallab › Question bank › Social & Preventive Medicine › #50241
International health agencies
Under which international arrangement were cobalt teletherapy units supplied to India for cancer treatment?
- A. UNICEF
- B. The World Bank
- C. The Rockefeller Foundation
- correctD. The Colombo Plan
Explanation
Key fact
The Colombo Plan is bilateral technical and capital aid between member countries - equipment and training rather than grants for programmes.
The Colombo Plan. It supplied cobalt teletherapy units and trained personnel for cancer treatment in India.
Why
It began in 1951 for cooperative economic development in South and South-East Asia.
Aid is bilateral - donor to recipient - rather than pooled.
It provides capital equipment, technical assistance and training fellowships.
Cobalt-60 teletherapy units for radiotherapy came through it.
It also supported medical education and public health engineering.
Who does what in international health
| Agency | Characteristic contribution |
|---|---|
| Colombo Plan | Bilateral technical aid, equipment, fellowships |
| UNICEF | Child health, immunisation, cold chain, nutrition |
| WHO | Norms, standards, technical guidance, eradication programmes |
| Rockefeller Foundation | Hookworm and yellow fever work, schools of public health |
| World Bank | Loans for health system strengthening |
| Red Cross | Disaster relief, blood transfusion services |
Why not the others
- A. UNICEF — supplies vaccines, cold chain equipment and nutritional support for children. Radiotherapy units are outside its remit.
- B. The World Bank — lends for health system development and produced the 1993 World Development Report that introduced the DALY. It does not supply individual equipment.
- C. The Rockefeller Foundation — is historically associated with hookworm and yellow fever control and with founding schools of public health.
Remember
Colombo for equipment and training, UNICEF for children, WHO for standards. Match the agency to the kind of help, not to the disease.
Go deeper
The National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke now runs cancer care in India, with regional cancer centres and tertiary care units.
CARE contributed food supplementation, and the Ford Foundation supported family planning - both frequently asked alongside this.
Park K. Park's Textbook of Preventive and Social Medicine, 28th ed. (Bhanot, 2025).