The World Health Organization announced on Tuesday its urgent need for funding amounting to one billion US dollars to confront the urgent health crises affecting 36 regions around the world, including areas with extremely deteriorating health conditions such as Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti.
The worst health crises
Chikwe Ekweazu, Executive Director of the Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, explained in press statements in Geneva that there are “a quarter of a billion people living in humanitarian crises that deprive them of basic protective factors, such as safety, shelter, and access to health care,” warning that “under conditions of this kind, health needs increase, while access to care decreases.”
It is worth noting that the United States had officially withdrawn from the World Health Organization earlier, a year after then-US President Donald Trump announced his intention to leave the organization.
The Trump administration justified this decision by what it described as the World Health Organization’s mishandling of the Covid-19 pandemic, in addition to its failure to adopt the required changes and its submission to political pressure from some member states.
It is known that the United States has been one of the strongest member states of the World Health Organization and its largest “financial supporter” since it contributed to its founding in 1948.
