World Health Organization Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced his new team of 36 directors at headquarters on Tuesday, according to an internal message to WHO staff, seen by Health Policy Watch. Nine of the appointments, including key positions heading the Departments of Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, and the newly-combined Department of Environment, […] Continue reading ->
Vital medical aid from World Health Organization supply trucks has yet to reach the beseiged Gaza enclave since the doors of an 80-day blockade inched open a week ago, said Hanan Balkhy, WHO’s director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, at a UN-Geneva press briefing on Monday. The chaos on the ground in Gaza, against a […] Continue reading ->
The world’s leading polio eradication programme faces a 40% budget cut next year as the paralysis-causing virus surges in its last strongholds of Afghanistan and Pakistan and war-torn regions, threatening to reverse decades of progress toward eradicating the disease. “The Global Polio Eradication Initiative is facing a 40% budget cut in 2026,” Dr Hanan Balkhy, […] Continue reading ->
WHO’s Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made an emotional appeal to Israel on Thursday to end its 80-day blockade of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid into Gaza, asking “if you can have mercy?” and adding: “the war is hurting Israel, and it will not bring a lasting solution.” Fighting back tears, the Director […] Continue reading ->
GENEVA – Although the past decade has seen progress in the fight against malnutrition, 148 million children remain stunted, 45 million suffer from wasting, and anaemia affects nearly one in three women globally, according to experts at the Geneva Health Forum (GHF). In 2023 alone, 733 million people experienced hunger—152 million more than in 2019—and […] Continue reading ->
A formal procedure for investigating allegations of misconduct against WHO’s Director General got the greenlight from the World Health Assembly on Tuesday – after six years of mostly closed door debate and deliberations. The procedure is the first ever to be approved by the global health body for investigating any current or future head of […] Continue reading ->
Nations at the 78th World Health Assembly approved a new budget and a 20% increase in annual membership fees for the World Health Organisation (WHO), handing the embattled UN health agency a crucial lifeline as it grapples with the financial bomb dropped on Geneva by the United States’ withdrawal from international institutions. The vote marks […] Continue reading ->
Presidents, prime ministers and even opera singers, celebrated the unanimous adoption of the world’s first Pandemic Agreement by consensus at the World Health Assembly (WHA) plenary on Tuesday morning. Despite the 11th-hour insistence of Slovakia on a vote on the agreement in Committee A on Monday night, none of the World Health Organization (WHO) member […] Continue reading ->
As countries dependent on United States aid for their HIV response report looming shortages of antiretroviral medicine, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is also fighting for survival. Meanwhile, more shocks may be ahead for the HIV sector as the US Health and Human Services plans to curtail research collaboration between US scientists and […] Continue reading ->
At around 3am Wednesday, after three years of often intense negotiations, World Health Organization (WHO) member states agreed on a draft Pandemic Agreement, which sets out basic terms of engagement to prepare for, prevent and respond to pandemics. Bleary-eyed negotiators and co-chairs Precious Matsoso and Anne-Claire Amprou welcomed the final greening of the entire text […] Continue reading ->