The WHO yesterday opened a meeting of global health ministers amid concern over deadly hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks and uncertainty over announced US and Argentine withdrawals.
While the rare hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship that has gripped global attention is not officially on the agenda, it is expected to feature prominently in discussions, alongside the latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The two outbreaks “are just the latest crises in our troubled world,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the opening of the UN agency’s annual decisionmaking World Health Assembly.
Photo: Reuters
“From conflicts to economic crises to climate change and aid cuts, we live in difficult, dangerous and divisive times,” he said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the global health challenges “have rarely felt more daunting.”
“Over the past year, cuts to bilateral and multilateral aid have disrupted health systems and widened inequalities,” Guterres said in a video address.
The meeting, which runs through Saturday, comes after a difficult year for an organization weakened by the announced US withdrawal and funding cuts.
“The WHO’s budget has been reduced by around 21 percent, or nearly 1 billion [US] dollars. Hundreds of jobs have been eliminated, programs have been reduced,” Swiss Minister of Public Health Elisabeth Baume-Schneider said in her address.
“The WHO had to, and was able to, undergo profound reform in the midst of the emergency,” she said.
Surie Moon, codirector of the Global Health Centre at the Geneva Graduate Institute, also suggested the WHO had weathered the storm, saying that while “the situation is “still fragile ... they’ve been successful in mobilizing most of the funds” required for the next two years.
And the hantavirus crisis provided “a clear illustration of why the world needs an effective, trusted, impartial, reliably funded WHO,” she added.
However,, significant divisions persist. Disagreement between wealthy and developing nations has blocked closure on the WHO’s landmark 2025 pandemic treaty, with negotiations now expected to be extended for another year.
It also remains unclear what, if anything, would be decided on the withdrawal of the US and Argentina. US President Donald Trump handed in a one-year notice to withdraw from WHO on his first day back in office in January last year. Argentina soon followed suit.
The WHO, whose constitution does not include a withdrawal clause, has not confirmed either withdrawal. The US reserved the right to withdraw when it joined the WHO in 1948 — on condition of giving one year’s notice and meeting its financial obligations in full for that fiscal year.
While the notice period has expired, Washington has still not paid its dues for 2024 and last year, owing about US$260 million.
When WHO’s executive board met in January, Israel submitted a resolution to approve Argentina’s withdrawal — something countries are expected to discuss during the assembly — but not a word was said about the US.
Diplomats and observers indicated there was broad agreement that it would be better to maintain a gray zone around the US status.
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