7 April 2024, Beirut, Lebanon – WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy concluded a 2-day visit to Beirut, Lebanon, last week at a time when hostilities are escalating on Lebanon’s southern border with Israel. The visit that took place on 2 and 3 April represented the third country visit on Dr Balkhy’s official tour of...

Join our ONE VOICE campaign in the runup to World No Tobacco Day on 31 May 2024. To take part, record a short video message that speaks to your peers about the sneaky ways that tobacco companies try to get young people hooked on nicotine. You can submit a video if you’re a young person aged 13–35 years and live in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean...

6 April 2024, Jerusalem, Cairo, Geneva - A WHO-led multi-agency mission accessed Al-Shifa Hospital in north Gaza on 5 April to conduct a preliminary assessment of the extent of destruction and identify needs to guide future efforts to restore the facility. The highly complex mission was conducted in close partnership with the United Nations Office for...

7 April 2024 Health is a human right, not a privilege. But all too often, that right is compromised. That’s why WHO has chosen “My health, my right” as the theme for World Health Day 2024. It is a critical issue in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Our Region is home to 38% of all people in need of humanitarian aid globally. Conflict and natural...

Episode 5 Dr Ahmed Al Soofi Head of WHO suboffice in Al Hudaydah, YemenMy journey with WHO began in 2007, following years of service with Yemen’s health ministry and a Belgian nongovernmental organization dedicated to assisting people with disabilities. Al-Hudaydah, nestled by the Red Sea, presents unique challenges. It has experienced years of...

4 April 2024, Cairo, Egypt – The International Organization for Migration (IOM), the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) today launched a joint programme to support the health system responses of the governments of Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon to climate change adaptation and risk...

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...