WHO Regional Director visits Islamic Republic of Iran to discuss health challenges and ...
25 April 2024, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran – Dr Hanan Balkhy concluded her first official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran as the new WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, which took place on 12–15 April. She met with officials and partners to discuss WHO’s work on the ground and how to strengthen collaborations and strategic initiatives to meet health needs.
The Regional Director’s visit began in the historic city of Isfahan, where she visited Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and met with Chancellor Dr Shahin Shirani, who also heads the Isfahan Academy of Medical Sciences. She also ...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 25, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Be ONE VOICE against tobacco: call for video messages
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 Region. The deadline to share your video with us is [10 May 2024].
We’ll select 100 videos to use in our World No Tobacco Day 2024 campaign. This year, our focus is all about protecting young people from tobacco industry tactics to promote their products.
All young people ca...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 8, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Visiting Lebanon, WHO Regional Director affirms support to address multiple health system challenges
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 the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region since taking office in February 2024.
“Lebanon’s health system faces multiple challenges, from hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees to hostilities in the south targeting health workers, facilities and ambulances,” said Dr Balkhy. ...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 7, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Six months of war leave Al-Shifa hospital in ruins, WHO mission reports
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 the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), United Nations Department for Safety and Security (UNDSS), and in collaboration with the acting Hospital Director.
Prior to the mission, WHO’s efforts to reach ...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 7, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Meet the heroes powering our emergency response: Dr Ahmed Al Soofi Head of WHO suboffice in Al ...
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 conflict and continues to suffer consistent instability. This has escalated in the past few months, as the impact of the war in the occupied Palestinian territory has spilled over into Yemen. In fact, only the other day, when I was leaving the office, there was an airstrike clos...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 7, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Meet the heroes powering our emergency response
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 conflict and continues to suffer consistent instability. This has escalated in the past few months, as the impact of the war in the occupied Palestinian territory has spilled over into Yemen. In fact, only the other day, when I was leaving the office, there was an airstrike clos...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 7, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
UN agencies launch joint programme to support Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon in climate change response
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 reduction over the coming two years.
The programme, operating under the Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund, aims to strengthen the resilience of health systems and migrant populations to climate change and disaster risks by incorporating an inclusive human mobility lens into natio...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 4, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
World Health Day 2024 highlights the right to health
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 recognized as a human right in the constitution of at least 140 countries, including 20 countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. All WHO Member States have ratified at least one treaty that recognizes the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and ment...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 3, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
WHO commends Iraq ’s world-first in polio transition
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 within the overall context of strengthening the national health system. These wider functions include immunization, vaccine-preventable diseases surveillance, and emergency preparedness and response.
To safeguard polio essential functions through sustainable resource...
Source: WHO EMRO News - April 1, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
WHO mourns loss of team member killed in Syria
Statement by Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean
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 when his building was struck during a series of airstrikes across the Governorate. We extend our deepest condolences to Eng. Shehab’s family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time.
Eng. Shehab, 42, served as a WHO focal point for water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) in Deir-ez-Zor ...
Source: WHO EMRO News - March 26, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Yemen conflict enters 10th year with over 17 million people in need of health aid
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, 50% of them children.
“It’s almost as if ongoing conflicts have become an accepted part of the everyday realities of life in the region. It’s important to step back and remember that hungry children, disease outbreaks, hospitals shutting down … these are not to be norm...
Source: WHO EMRO News - March 25, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Opening remarks by Dr Hanan Hassan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, ...
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 to advance global, regional and national efforts towards ending the TB epidemic by endorsing a political declaration on TB with ambitious targets for the next five years.
Despite the setbacks of the COVID-19 emergency, countries and territories of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Re...
Source: WHO EMRO News - March 24, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
World Tuberculosis Day 2024: many more TB cases could be prevented
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 mainly affects the lungs but can attack any part of the body. Despite being preventable and curable, TB kills 1.5 million people each year – making it the world’s top infectious killer. TB is also the leading cause of death among people living with HIV and a major cont...
Source: WHO EMRO News - March 23, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Regional Director statement on visit to Al-Arish and Rafah, Egypt
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 the Gaza crisis.
Since the escalation of hostilities in the occupied Palestinian territory, Egypt has been playing a key role in facilitating the delivery of aid into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing and providing free medical care and treatment for evacuated patients....
Source: WHO EMRO News - March 21, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
Unprecedented number of Syrians in need of aid after 13 years of war
16 MARCH 2024, CAIRO, EGYPT – Thirteen years of conflict have left 16.7 million people requiring humanitarian aid and 15 million people 65% of the population – in need of health assistance in Syria. This is the largest number of people in need of humanitarian aid since the conflict began in 2011.
“There are currently more Syrians in need of aid than any other time since the war began,” said Dr Hanan Balkhy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean. “An entire generation has been born into war, knowing nothing but insecurity and deprivation, and facing shock after repeated shock. We need to exert all e...
Source: WHO EMRO News - March 16, 2024 Category: Middle East Health Source Type: news
