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WHO: Humanitarian emergencies at ‘all-time high’
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WHO recently announced the agency and its partners need $2.2 billion to respond to health needs caused by humanitarian emergencies affecting more than 79 million people in 30 countries, according to press release.
Although more than $2 billion is needed collectively, WHO is appealing for $480 million in its recently launched World Humanitarian Response Plan 2016.
Bruce Aylward
“The risks to health caused by humanitarian emergencies are at an all-time high, and the situation is getting worse,” Bruce Aylward, MD, MPH, WHO’s executive director ad interim of outbreaks and health emergencies, said in the release. “The increasing impact of protracted conflict, forced displacement, climate change, unplanned urbanization and demographic changes all mean that humanitarian emergencies are becoming more frequent and severe.”
The agency and its partners are partly responding to protracted emergencies, often in insecure and difficult settings such as Syria, by providing vaccines and treatment for diseases such as cholera and measles.
In addition, WHO is responding to sudden onset emergencies including the Zika virus epidemic, the remaining Ebola risks in West Africa, and Angola’s worst yellow fever outbreak in 30 years, the release said. More than 490 people have been infected with yellow fever in Angola, and 198 have died, according to WHO. Through March, WHO and its partners have vaccinated approximately 5.7 million people against yellow fever using vaccines from the International Coordination Group emergency stockpile. An additional 1.5 million doses are needed to vaccinate people at risk for the infection in Luanda province alone; however, the outbreak has since spread to six of the country’s 18 provinces.
For more information: World Humanitarian Response Plan 2016
Disclosure: Aylward reports no relevant financial disclosures.