WHO
The WHO, or the World Health Organization, is a real organization. It has succeeded the RMS as the main cure research organization as of the Mutation 8 update.
In the game, they provide reports and analysis on natural disasters and diseases. For example, a severe storm in the Philippines may kill 56 people, but the WHO will say that the repairs will be easily made (cure research doesn't decrease). Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and any other disasters are also rated by WHO.
Diseases are also rated by the WHO, but not until doctors notice the disease. Once the disease is considered 'worthy', it will be placed on the WHO watchlist. Once it has killed enough people, the WHO will tell the world exactly how dangerous it is by placing the disease much higher on the list, provided that the player hasn't killed most of the world yet. They also publish their cure report, which is the update on how far along the cure for a disease is.
Cure Report
When a new epidemic outbreak occurs, the WHO will launch related reports to alert the human population on how to treat the disease, either to warn how dangerous it can become or if the disease is already showing severe symptoms.
Watchlist
The WHO watchlist is a list of diseases which must be watched because they are potentially dangerous. It is published by the organization WHO. All plagues are eventually put on this list, regardless of how dangerous or deadly they are. On Mega Brutal difficulty, diseases with no symptoms may be placed on the watchlist.
Shadow Plague
The WHO is the second biggest threat of Shadow Plague. If the player evolved the Shadow Blessing symptom, the WHO will build their labs world wide in order to stop the plague. Countries with WHO labs will invest more into the cure development, exceeding its investment limit. Destroying WHO labs, however, will provide setbacks to the cure development. After a certain amount of labs are destroyed, the WHO labs initiative will be considered a failure, and they will give up on building more labs.
Trivia
- There is a news headline which states that a new leader of WHO has been "elected". This has no influence on the cure, and, in fact, is not even highlighted.
- In comparison to the Templars, the WHO can be viewed as a lesser threat.