The World Health Organization on Monday launched an appeal for $2.54 billion this year to respond to an unprecedented number of health emergencies occurring simultaneously in the world.
The wars and their devastating repercussions on the civilian population in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria and Ethiopia are added to the disasters related to climate change, such as floods that flooded a third of the lands in Pakistan, drought and food insecurity in the Sahel and Horn of Africa regions, according to the World Health Organization, which stresses that health care networks have become weak and fragile. Three years following the outbreak of Covid-19 and the arrival of a wave of cholera and measles epidemics.
“We are witnessing an unprecedented convergence of crises that require an unprecedented response,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The world cannot turn a blind eye and expect these crises to resolve themselves,” he added.
He pointed out that the organization is currently responding to 54 health crises in the world, 11 of which have been classified at the highest level of health emergencies, which requires a large-scale response.
The various health emergencies come at a time when the need for humanitarian assistance is increasing in the world.
The United Nations estimates that 339 million people worldwide will need some form of emergency assistance this year, almost a quarter more than in 2022.