WHO chief laments most disruptive cuts to global health funding ‘in living memory’

“We are living through the greatest disruption to global health financing in memory,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

He cautioned that abrupt withdrawals of funding are jeopardising hard-won medical progress, including efforts to combat tropical diseases, which are now re-emerging in some regions.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he told journalists at WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Outbreaks intensify

Since January, Angola has been facing its worst cholera outbreaks in 20 years, with over 17,000 cases and more than 550 deaths recorded so far.

Inadequate access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation is fuelling the outbreak.

As WHO and partners carry out a large-scale vaccination campaign on the ground, one of their priorities is to bring the death rate down, said Tedros.

Amid funding cuts, advances in tackling neglected tropical diseases affecting over one billion people, are disproportionately impacting the poorest and most marginalized communities.

Reduced access

In many countries where insecurity is rife and hospitals are being targeted, access to healthcare has been severely reduced, Tedros continued.

On April 22, one of Haiti’s largest public hospitals, Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, was forced to shut down due to violence. In the capital Port-au-Prince, more than 40 per cent of health facilities remain closed, he said.

Needless deaths

Turning to the Gaza blockade, he said the situation there was “catastrophically bad,” with the violence “driving an influx of casualties to a health system that is already on its knees.”

While essential medicines, and trauma and medical supplies, are running out, “people are dying from preventable diseases while medicines wait at the border,” said Tedros.

Reiterating the UN’s call for a ceasefire, Tedros added that “peace is the best medicine.”