GENEVA – The World Health Assembly (WHA) voted 91-2 to adopt a resolution condemning Iranian attacks on civilian infrastructure across Gulf countries amid its war with the United States and Israel. The resolution condemns “in the strongest terms” the Iranian attacks on civilians and civilian objects in Gulf states and Jordan, citing damage to “medical […] Continue reading ->
WHO member states on Thursday agreed to suspend the voting rights of the United States in the World Health Assembly as of May 2027 if some $280 million in outstanding 2024–25 dues remain unpaid – despite the US announcement of withdrawal last year. In the same resolution, the suspension of Iran’s voting rights was averted […] Continue reading ->
The world is not ready for the next pandemic – and it won’t be unless local capacity is strengthened, global health experts agreed at an event in Geneva on Tuesday. Does anyone brief cruise ship captains, cruise operators and passengers from Argentina that hantavirus is an endemic virus? asked Helen Clark, co-chair of the Independent […] Continue reading ->
Neither Russia’s delegate banging her desk to interrupt Ukraine’s representative speaking at the World Health Assembly (WHA), nor her request to dismiss debate, stopped member states from condemning Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s health system. A report by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General before delegates estimated that Russia’s aggression on Ukraine has caused 55,600 civilian […] Continue reading ->
The grim impossibility of addressing rising health emergencies with dwindling budgets was raised at the World Health Assembly (WHA) on Tuesday – amid votes on attacks on healthcare in Lebanon and Israel. “Outbreaks are accelerating, while the systems designed to stop them are being weakened,” warned Dr Annette Heinzelmann, emergency director for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA — The outbreak of a deadly strain of Ebola for which there is no vaccine is accelerating through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Uganda at a “scale and speed” alarming the World Health Organization (WHO), as cases climb and authorities scramble to contain the spread. “I’m deeply concerned about the scale and […] Continue reading ->
“From conflicts to economic crises to climate change and aid cuts, we live in difficult, dangerous and divisive times,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening plenary of the World Health Assembly (WHA) on Monday. While geopolitical disagreements have delayed Tedros’s official WHA address until Tuesday morning, the Director […] Continue reading ->
As the World Health Assembly opens on Monday in Geneva, it will have to grapple with shrinking global health budgets, new outbreak threats, including a new WHO declaration of a public health emergency in Africa over an Ebola virus strain that lacks any vaccine, and an increasingly fractured geopolitical space with deep disputes over Iran, […] Continue reading ->
The World Health Organization (WHO) has called on governments to strictly regulate nicotine pouches to prevent an imminent epidemic among vulnerable adolescents. These highly addictive products threaten to dismantle decades of global progress in tobacco control if left completely unchecked, health officials warn. Faced with declining cigarette sales, tobacco companies continuously release new product lines, […] Continue reading ->
Philanthropy can help make every dollar deliver more impact. I often think about a boy I met in Kajiado County, Kenya. He was the same age as my son, but half his weight. A World Health Organization (WHO) colleague measured the circumference of his arm to confirm what was already painfully clear: he was severely […] Continue reading ->