Current disease outbreaks highlight the urgent need for every country to ramp up its care systems, the World Health Organization (WHO) chief told journalists on Wednesday.
The call comes against a backdrop of Marburg and mpox outbreaks, the more than 10,000 COVID-19 deaths still being reported weekly, and the ongoing emergency response to the deadly earthquake in Syria and Türkiye, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“Together, these current conditions point to the critical need for all countries to build health systems” that can successfully handle such emergencies, he said.
Recalling his recent visit to Syria, he said that more than a decade of conflict has left the country’s health infrastructure unable to cope with the aftermath of the recent earthquake, with town after town destroyed, unfolding as a demonstration of the legacy of war.
