7 April 2024, Cairo, Egypt – “My health, my right”, the theme for World Health Day 2024, is a reminder that health is a fundamental right that must be ensured for every human being. Health as a human right is recognized in the WHO Constitution, and the right to health has been central to WHO’s identity and mandate since the start. Health is also...

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...

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...

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...

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,...

24 March 2024 Today, on World Tuberculosis Day, we commemorate the ongoing efforts to combat this infectious disease, which tragically claims over 1 million lives annually – 7% of which occur in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. Each year, this day serves as a reminder that ending TB is within our reach. Prevention is indeed better than cure;...

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...

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...

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...

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...