Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Force in Play

Leading WHO's response and condemning attacks on Ebola responders

Congo's Ebola outbreak has killed 5,372 people among 10,414 confirmed cases, a 51.6% fatality rate, the National Institute of Public Health said in a report released October 31. Across Africa the toll is now 5,376, after Kenya and Uganda each recorded two deaths, the Africa CDC said on November 2.

Updated Nov 3

Force in Play

Declared the PHEIC on May 17, 2026 on the advice of the IHR Emergency Committee

Nigeria's first Bundibugyo Ebola patient is the wife of a diplomat who holidayed in Uganda, Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya told the BBC. She is isolated in Abuja, and 44 contacts, most of them health workers, are being monitored.

Updated Nov 1

Rule Changes

As of September 2026: Leading WHO's response to immunization coverage data

Global childhood vaccination rates rose one point in 2025, but the world still hasn't recovered ground lost during the pandemic. New WHO-UNICEF data show 90% of infants got at least one dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine — roughly 116 million babies — yet coverage remains one point below 2019 levels.

Updated Sep 11

New Capabilities

As of September 2026: Leading WHO's global disease elimination agenda

Timor-Leste was the last country in Southeast Asia where trachoma, the world's leading infectious cause of blindness, still counted as a public health problem. On September 3, 2026, the World Health Organization (WHO) validated that the disease is gone, clearing the entire South-East Asia Region.

Updated Sep 7

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Leading WHO's Triple Elimination Initiative as 26 countries and territories are recognized

Denmark became the first European Union country validated by the World Health Organization for eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis in February 2026. Routine prenatal screening and treatment drove new infant infections to zero across the four years WHO reviewed.

Updated May 30

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Serving second term as WHO Director-General

Four in ten cancer cases worldwide could be prevented. That's from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer—the first time researchers have quantified the combined burden of cancer's behavioral, environmental, occupational, and infectious causes using data from 185 countries. The analysis, published in Nature Medicine ahead of World Cancer Day, estimates that 7.1 million cancer cases in 2022 were linked to just 30 modifiable risk factors.

Updated May 29

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Serving second term (reelected 2022)

Six years ago, the World Health Organization sounded its highest alarm for COVID-19, a disease that would kill over 7 million people by official counts and likely more than 20 million when including excess deaths. The question now: Is the world any better prepared for the next pandemic?

Updated May 26

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Leading global health coordination

The 67% drop in global death rates since 1950 continued in 2026: WHO's World Health Statistics report found HIV infections down 40% since 2010, under-five deaths halved since 2000, and maternal mortality down 40%. Life expectancy sits at 73 globally, but still runs 21 years shorter in sub-Saharan Africa than in high-income regions.

Updated May 22

Rule Changes

As of May 2026: Leading WHO through budget crisis; term runs through 2027

The U.S. joined the WHO on June 14, 1948, three years after helping design the agency, and became the first to withdraw on January 22, 2026, ending 77 years of involvement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. cited the WHO's 'failures during the COVID-19 pandemic' and its inability to demonstrate independence from 'inappropriate political influence.' The U.S. left without paying between $130 million and $278 million in disputed dues.

Updated May 22

New Capabilities

As of May 2026: Leading global health coordination

For the first time since records began, fewer than 100 million people need treatment for trachoma—a bacterial eye disease that's been blinding humans since ancient Egyptian times. The number at risk has cratered 94% since 2002, from 1.5 billion to 97 million. Twenty-seven countries have eliminated it entirely, making trachoma one of the success stories celebrated at World NTD Day 2026 on January 30.

Updated May 20

Money Moves

As of May 2026: Chief public advocate for fully funding polio eradication

Global donors pledged US$1.9 billion to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative at an Abu Dhabi pledging event on 8 December 2025, temporarily stabilizing a campaign facing a 30% budget cut in 2026 and a multi-year gap. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged US$1.2 billion and Rotary International pledged US$450 million, narrowing the 2022–2029 funding shortfall to roughly US$440 million but leaving a gap. Wild poliovirus transmission has resurged in Afghanistan and Pakistan as vaccine-derived polio sparks outbreaks in under-immunized communities worldwide.

Updated May 10

Money Moves

As of May 2026: Advocating for health funding amid broader aid cuts

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cut its 2026 humanitarian appeal to roughly $33 billion in December 2025, down from the $47 billion requested for 2025. Governments had provided only about $15 billion in 2025 — the lowest level of support in a decade. Three weeks later, the United States pledged $2 billion to OCHA-managed funds, providing roughly two-thirds of the funding needed to reach 87 million people in the most catastrophic need.

Updated May 10