8 May 2019, Cairo, Egypt: The World Health Organization (WHO) strongly condemns continuing attacks on health facilities in north-western Syria. Since 28 April, in just 9 days, 12 health structures have been hit.  On 5 May, 3 facilities were struck in one day alone, including 2 major hospitals that provide secondary health care in the area. One of...

7 May 2019 – The Fifth United Nations Global Road Safety Week, under the theme “Leadership for road safety”, is taking place from 6 to 12 May 2019. This major worldwide campaign was requested by the United Nations General Assembly in April 2018 in resolution A/72/271 on improving global road safety. Road safety continues to be a grave public...

Global Hand Hygiene Day will be celebrated worldwide on 5 May 2019. This year, the focus will be the importance of good hand hygiene practices as part of improving patient safety globally to achieve universal health coverage (UHC), under the theme “Clean care for all – it’s in your hands”. Hand hygiene is part of infection prevention and control...

24 April 2019 – Malaria-endemic countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region have made significant progress. Malaria cases and deaths in the Region fell by more than 60% between 2000 and 2015, thanks to increased coverage of malaria control interventions. In the same period, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco were certified free from malaria, while...

23 April 2019, Cairo – World Immunization Week will be celebrated both globally and regionally from 24 to 30 April 2019، using the slogan “Protected Together: Vaccines Work!” to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against vaccine-preventable diseases. Immunization saves millions of lives every year and is widely recognized as one...

3 million people now in need of immediate health care assistance Cairo, April 11, 2019 – As the number of people impacted by the recent flooding in Islamic Republic of Iran increases, WHO’s Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean expressed his condolences to families who have lost loved ones. He also reiterated that the support already...

7 April 2019, Cairo – The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean joins the world today in marking World Health Day 2019 focusing on primary health care as the path towards universal health coverage. World Health Day 2019 places a special emphasis on equity and solidarity – on raising the bar for health for...

27 March 2019 ‒ As part of its effort to address violence against women and girls, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean is launching an Arabic version of the WHO package on health system response to violence against women and girls. In releasing this evidence-based guidance, WHO seeks to ensure that preventing and responding to...

21 March 2019, Cairo, Egypt ‒ On the occasion of World TB Day, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said that WHO called on governments, affected communities, civil society organizations, health care providers, and national/international partners to act now to detect and treat all tuberculosis (TB) cases to end...

3 March 2019 ‒ The Fourth Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety is being held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, from 2 to 3 March 2019, with a focus on patient safety in low- and middle-income countries that shoulder two thirds of the global patient harm burden. Patient safety in health care is a serious global public health concern and a major...