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WHO commends Iraq’s world-first in polio transition
1 April 2024 – As of January 2024, Iraq has achieved the polio transition process in full. It is the first country among the polio transition priority countries to achieve this remarkable feat. Polio transition involves repurposing polio assets – knowledge, network and infrastructure – to strengthen the broader public health functions of a country...
WHO mourns loss of team member killed in Syria
Statement by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean 26 March 2024– On behalf of the World Health Organization, it is with profound sorrow that we announce the tragic loss of one of our dedicated team members, Engineer Emad Shehab, in Deir-ez-Zor City, Syria, who lost his life in the early hours of Tuesday morning...
Yemen conflict enters 10th year with over 17 million people in need of health aid
The country faces an alarmingly high malnutrition rate, with nearly 2.4 million children aged under 5 years suffering from stunting. 25 March 2024, Cairo, Egypt – The conflict in Yemen enters its 10th year today, with over half of the country’s population in desperate need of aid and an estimated 17.8 million people requiring health assistance,...
Unprecedented number of Syrians in need of aid after 13 years of war
16 MARCH 2024, CAIRO, EGYPT – Thirteen years of conflict have left 16.7 million people requiring humanitarian aid and 15 million people - 65% of the population – in need of health assistance in Syria. This is the largest number of people in need of humanitarian aid since the conflict began in 2011. “There are currently more Syrians in need of aid...
Opening remarks by Dr Hanan Hassan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, on the occasion of celebrating the World Tuberculosis Day
24 March 2024 Thank you for gathering here today on World Tuberculosis Day. As one of the most deadly infectious diseases in the world, TB remains a pressing challenge to all WHO regions. In September 2023, the United Nations General Assembly convened its second high-level meeting on tuberculosis, at which Member States renewed their commitments...
World Tuberculosis Day 2024: many more TB cases could be prevented
24 March 2024, Cairo, Egypt – Tuberculosis (TB) is still one of the world’s deadliest diseases, although it is both preventable and curable. Today, on World Tuberculosis Day, WHO and partners worldwide unite to renew the commitment to end the global TB pandemic. Every year, 10 million people globally fall ill with TB. An infectious disease that...
Regional Director statement on visit to Al-Arish and Rafah, Egypt
22 March 2024, Cairo, Egypt – I recently visited Al-Arish Governorate and the Rafah border crossing point in Egypt, where I met with the Deputy Governor of North Sinai Major General El-Ghandoor, senior officials from the Egyptian Red Crescent (ERC) and Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS), and other health partners working on the health response to...
Regional Director statement on Sudan
15 March 2024 – I have just returned from Sudan, my first mission to an emergency country in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region since I took office 5 weeks ago. I saw first-hand the devastation that decades of fragility, and nearly a year of brutal war, have wreaked on the country. “We lost many things this year that we will never be able to...
Unprecedented number of Syrians in need of aid after 13 years of war
16 MARCH 2024, CAIRO, EGYPT – Thirteen years of conflict have left 16.7 million people requiring humanitarian aid and 15 million people - 65% of the population – in need of health assistance in Syria. This is the largest number of people in need of humanitarian aid since the conflict began in 2011. “There are currently more Syrians in need of aid...
Sudan to respond to new emergence of variant poliovirus in Red Sea State
A child is given the oral polio vaccine during a polio vaccination campaign, Sudan, November 2020. Photo credit: WHO/WHO Sudan 11 March 2024, Port Sudan, Sudan – Sudan’s Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) will launch a polio vaccination campaign in April 2024 in response to a new emergence of variant poliovirus type 2 reported in January 2024. It was...
