WHO advocates for solidarity to paint a healthier and safer future
29 January 2024, Cairo, Egypt – To mark the World Health Organization’s 75th anniversary, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean hosted a networking and partner and staff appreciation event last night, at the Grand Egyptian Museum, Cairo, under the theme “Painting a healthier and safer future together”. The aim was to renew...
Leadership roundtable event on women’s health: addressing women’s cancers in the Eastern Mediterranean
18 January 2024 – Cairo, Egypt – The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population, in collaboration with the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean successfully organized a landmark event as part of the Presidential Initiative on Women’s Health. Held on 18 January 2024 at the Hilton Heliopolis Hotel in Cairo, this roundtable event...
WHO and partners bring fuel to Al-Shifa, as remaining hospitals in Gaza face growing threats
Cairo, Geneva, Jerusalem, 23 January 2024 – WHO and partners completed another high-risk mission on Monday to resupply fuel to the Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people remain cut off from aid. Across the Gaza Strip, the few remaining hospitals find themselves in ever more dire circumstances, with hostilities often...
Dr Hanan Balkhy is appointed WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean
23 January 2024, Geneva – The WHO Executive Board, currently holding its 154th session in Geneva, has appointed Dr Hanan Balkhy of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. This follows her nomination by the WHO Regional Committee for the Eastern Mediterranean on 10 October 2023. Dr Balkhy takes up her...
Young health professionals combat antimicrobial resistance
23 January 2024 – The WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region has some of the highest and fastest-growing rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) globally, owing to widespread antibiotic misuse and overuse. Nearly 1.3 million people are already dying as a direct result of AMR worldwide. High rates of drug resistance undermine many health efforts and make...
WHO teams deliver supplies to hospitals in Northern and Southern Gaza
New mass displacement of Palestinians fleeing fighting, health facilities crammed with people seeking refuge, food. Photo credit: WHO 27 December 2023 – Gaza: World Health Organization teams have undertaken high-risk missions to deliver supplies, with partners, to hospitals in Northern and Southern Gaza witnessing intense hostilities in their...
WHO builds health emergency response capacities
A WHO expert explains the R programming language tool during the training. Photo credit: WHO/Health Emergency Information and Risk Assessment Unit25 December 2023, Cairo, Egypt – Data management skills can help experts to better handle health emergency data and respond to public health challenges. To strengthen data management in health...
Lethal combination of hunger and disease to lead to more deaths in Gaza
People displaced from their homes waiting for food at Al-Shaboura Camp, in the centre of Rafa, Gaza on 17–18 December 2023. Photo credit: WHO 21 December 2023 – Hunger is ravaging Gaza, and this is expected to increase illness across the Strip, most acutely among children, pregnant and breastfeeding women, and older people. In new estimates...
Opening remarks, UN Palais briefing, 21 December 2023
Dr Richard Peeperkorn, WHO Representative on the occupied Palestinian territorySean Casey, WHO Emergency Medical Teams coordinator Yesterday, 20 December 2023, in another high-risk joint mission, a team from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other UN partners, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA),...
WHO and IARC: 10 years of collaboration to control cancer
20 December 2023 – WHO and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) continue to work together to improve cancer surveillance systems in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. The aim is to improve reporting and surveillance systems and the quality of cancer-related data – ultimately to contribute to cancer control. Such efforts...