15 February 2024  – On International Childhood Cancer Day 2024, we highlight the vital role of parents, as well as family doctors and paediatricians, in the early detection of childhood cancers. No one is more ready to invest in their children’s well-being than parents. By getting to know the early signs and symptoms of certain cancers and looking out for...

6 February 2024, Cairo, Egypt – A US$ 10 million agreement signed today by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) will provide more than one million people in Gaza with access to emergency life-saving health services. “The collaboration between WHO and KSrelief signifies a strategic,...

Protecting children from tobacco industry interference Application form On 31 May 2024, WHO will celebrate World No Tobacco Day. The tobacco problem is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing about 8.3 million people a year globally. More than 7 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use, while...

Cancer is a major contributor to global mortality, causing about 1 in every 6 deaths and affecting nearly every household (1). Globally, there were an estimated 20 million new cases of cancer and 9.7 million deaths from cancer in 2022. The cancer burden will increase by about 77% by 2050, further straining health systems, people and communities...

29 January 2024, Cairo, Egypt – To mark the World Health Organization’s 75th anniversary, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean hosted a networking and partner and staff appreciation event last night, at the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo, under the theme “Painting a healthier and safer future together”. The aim was to renew...

18 January 2024 – Cairo, Egypt – The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean successfully organized a landmark event as part of the Presidential Initiative on Women’s Health. Held on 18 January 2024 at the Hilton Heliopolis Hotel in Cairo, this roundtable event...

Cairo, Geneva, Jerusalem, 23 January 2024 – WHO and partners completed another high-risk mission on Monday to resupply fuel to the Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people remain cut off from aid. Across the Gaza Strip, the few remaining hospitals find themselves in ever more dire circumstances, with hostilities often...

23 January 2024, Geneva – The WHO Executive Board, currently holding its 154th session in Geneva, has appointed Dr Hanan Balkhy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. This follows her nomination by the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean on 10 October 2023. Dr Balkhy takes up her...

23 January 2024 – The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region has some of the highest and fastest-growing rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally, owing to widespread antibiotic misuse and overuse. Nearly 1.3 million people are already dying as a direct result of AMR worldwide. High rates of drug resistance undermine many health efforts and make...

15 January 2024 Good afternoon from WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean in Cairo, Egypt. We are now at the 100-day mark since the hostilities in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory escalated. In this short period of time, Gazans – previously waking up every day in their beds to get ready to go to school or work, have...