WHO 'overstretched' in response to increasing health emergencies
Send a link to a friend
[May 23, 2023]
By Jennifer Rigby
LONDON (Reuters) - A growing number of health emergencies around the
world, from COVID-19 to cholera, have left the World Health
Organization's response "overstretched", a senior advisor said on
Tuesday.
Speaking at the U.N. agency's annual meeting, Professor Walid Ammar,
chair of a committee reviewing the WHO's emergency response, said
funding and staffing gaps were widening in the face of ever-increasing
demands.
"[The] programme is overstretched as demands have only grown with the
multiplicity and complexity of emergencies," he said.
As of March this year, the WHO was responding to 53 high-level
emergencies, a report by the committee said. These included diseases
like COVID-19, cholera and a Marburg outbreak in Equatorial Guinea and
Tanzania, as well as humanitarian emergencies like the earthquake in
Turkey and Syria and floods in Pakistan.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/May/23/images/ads/current/bauer_sda_PROMGRAD_2023.png)
The report also noted that climate change was increasing the frequency
of events like floods and cyclones, all of which have health
consequences.
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/052323PIX/health27.jpg)
Director-General of the World Health
Organisation (WHO) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends the World
Health Assembly at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, May
21, 2023. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2019/Sep/05/images/ads/current/stclara_lda_SPONSOR_090519.png) However, the emergency programme's
core budget for 2022-2023 is only about 53% funded, the report
found, calling for more stable financing.
The WHO and member states are trying to reform how the agency - and
countries - respond to health emergencies, as well as shoring up the
WHO's funding. On Monday, member states approved a new budget
including a 20% hike in their mandatory fees.
The report also called on the WHO to look for more efficiencies: for
example, in Malawi, four different emergency teams were responding
to cholera, COVID-19, polio, and flooding, in ways that may have
overlapped, it said.
(Reporting by Jennifer Rigby; Editing by Christina Fincher)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |