Oro-facial noma is a worldwide scourge in a context where the World Health Report 1998 gives a global incidence of 140,000 cases, a prevalence in 1997 of 770,000 persons surviving with heavy sequelae. The background and the five steps of the WHO oral health programme to control noma including: (i) ensuring training and awareness on early diagnosis and treatment for each public health structure, (ii) raising awareness and informing populations, (iii) promoting epidemiological research, (iv) promoting aetiological research, (v) setting up an African regional centre for the treatment of after-effects, are developed in this paper.