18 August 2025 Distinguished colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 24th intercountry meeting of poliovirus laboratory directors in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. Your work is critical to the Region’s progress towards polio eradication. The precision, dedication, and collaboration that define this laboratory network...

11 August 2025, Manama, Bahrain – World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Dr Hanan Balkhy has completed her first official visit – from 4 to 6 August 2025 – to the Kingdom of Bahrain. The visit reaffirmed the longstanding strategic partnership between WHO and the Government of Bahrain, highlighted Bahrain’s progress...

06 August 2025 His Excellency Lieutenant General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Minister of Interior Her Excellency Dr Jalila bint El-Sayed Jawad Hassan, Minister of Health The Honourable Shaikh Khalid bin Humood bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Governor of the Capital Governorate The Honourable Hassan Abdullah Mohammed Al Madani, Governor of the...

05 August 2025 Excellencies, distinguished colleagues, It is a pleasure to join you today for this timely roundtable on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and health workforce education. I thank Dr Saad Alfuhaid, President of the Arabian Gulf University, for bringing us together, and I warmly acknowledge the leadership of Dr Jameela Alsalman, Chair of...

31 July 2025, Jerusalem, Cairo: The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in the Gaza Strip, according to the alert published this week by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC).   People are foregoing food for days. Others are dying as their undernourished, weakened bodies succumb to disease or organ failure. The...

Invest in breastfeeding, invest in the future 1 August 2025 – Since 1992, World Breastfeeding Week (WBW) has been celebrated Annually, in the first week of August. In 2018, a World Health Assembly resolution endorsed WBW as an important breastfeeding promotion strategy. Championed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations...

World Hepatitis Day is observed each year on 28 July to raise awareness of viral hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, mostly caused by a viral infection that progresses to severe liver disease and liver cancer. Hepatitis is a major public health problem across the World Health Organization (WHO) Eastern Mediterranean Region, affecting 27...

26 July 2025 – In Lebanon, I stood in the ruins of a bombed-out primary health care centre in the southern suburbs of Beirut. I met mothers doing their utmost to keep their children healthy amid rising prices and dwindling options. And I witnessed the quiet determination of health workers who continue to show up each day to serve their...

Jerusalem, Cairo, Geneva, 27 July 2025 - Malnutrition is on a dangerous trajectory in the Gaza Strip, marked by a spike in deaths in July. Of 74 malnutrition-related deaths in 2025, 63 occurred in July - including 24 children under five, a child over five, and 38 adults. Most of these people were declared dead on arrival at health facilities or died...

24 July 2025,24 July 2025, Cairo, Egypt – World Drowning Prevention Day, a global advocacy event held annually on 25 July, serves as an opportunity to highlight the tragic and profound impact of drowning on families and communities and offer lifesaving solutions to prevent it.   Over the last decade at least 3 million people have lost their lives...