On April 7, 1948 the World Health Organization came into existence as a specialized agency of the United Nations with the ratification of its constitution by the Byelorussian SSR and Mexico. These ratifications brought the total number of ratifying States (Member governments of the United Nations) to 27, or one more than were required by the WHO Constitution to bring the Organization into existence. The Member states who had ratified the Constitution at that time were Australia, Canada, China, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Greece, Haiti, India, Iran, Iraq, Liberia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Siam, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, Ukrainian SSR, Union of South Africa, USSR, United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia. In addition, Albania, Austria, Finland, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland and Transjordan had also joined the organization.