W. Kazadi Mulombo

Once #ARG Always #ARG It was nice to reconnect with @adh_is69 a co-member of the WHO Country Representatives-led Actions For Results Group. ARG was launched as an initiative to spearhead WHO Country Offices Strengthening in response to recommendations of the 11th @WHO Global Management Meeting. Now at its cohort 3, the initiative continuous to inform Organizations wide reforms to empower country offices to deliver on WHO’s core mandate with greater effectiveness, efficiency and impact orientation. It was truly nice to meet in the sides of #WHA79 and look back from our now different positions and roles, and with great sense of fulfillment @DrTedros @WHOSEARO @WHOWPRO @WHO_Europe @WHOEMRO @pahowho @WHOAFRO

Yesterday I convened an Emergency Committee on the #Ebola outbreak in the #DRC and #Uganda. The Committee agreed that the situation is a public health emergency of international concern. @WHO assesses the risk of the epidemic as high at the national and regional levels, and low at the global level.

The #Ebola response in the #DRC and #Uganda needs all hands on deck. Yesterday, I convened the principals of organizations and institutions that are part of @WHO’s Interim Medical Countermeasures Network. While there are currently no therapeutics or vaccines for Bundibugyo virus, we met to discuss the ongoing R&D efforts for new vaccines, therapeutics and better diagnostics, as well as the further investment needed to advance these efforts. We are aligned in following the lead of the affected countries and providing support in strengthening their capacities to end this outbreak.

It was my special privilege and honour to present my friend, former Executive Director of the @WHO Health Emergencies Programme and colleague Dr Mike Ryan from #Ireland, with the Director-General's Award for Global Health for his leadership in strengthening global health emergency preparedness and response. Mike helped establish the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (@WHOGOARN), which has supported responses to hundreds of disease outbreaks worldwide. From leading WHO’s response to major health emergencies, including SARS, Ebola and COVID-19, to also serving as Deputy Director-General, his leadership has helped shape how the world detects, prepares for and responds to health emergencies. Mike's work has had a profound and lasting impact on the protection of vulnerable communities and global health security. #WHA79

Dear Minister @jeong_eunkyeong, my deepest gratitude for your support and for joining us in person to honour the legacy of Dr Lee Jong‑wook, who established the first Strategic Health Operations Centre following the SARS outbreak in 2003. x.com/jeong_eunkyeon…

Appreciate the strong support of #Ireland to @WHO, demonstrated by its increase in their voluntary contributions to @WHO in the past year. I'm so grateful to Health Minister @CarrollJennifer for 🇮🇪's strong partnership and support to the World's Health Organization. Today we discussed health priorities for 🇮🇪's upcoming EU presidency, the ongoing responses to the hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks, and the importance of daily exercise to keep people healthy. #WHA79

For those who can't be with us in Geneva to attend #WHA79 in person, here are a few key highlights from Day 1. My deepest gratitude to our special guests: Federal Councilor @elisabeth_baume, President @JDMahama, and Prime Minister @sanchezcastejon - our champions for global health security and multilateralism. We are stronger and safer together – as one world.

#WHA79 has started. Happy to welcome @WHO Member States and global health partners back to the @UNGeneva Main Assembly Hall to start a crucial week of deliberations for global health.

Completed my #WalkTheTalk burnt over 500Kcal through near to two hours exercise. Fatigue has gone. The mind is much clearer, ready to connect and be part of #WHA79 talks, not least the ongoing discussions Global Health Architecture reset in the face of mega trends affecting our path towards #UHC and #GHSA by 2030, the #PABS annex of the pandemic accord, what would the new generation of @WHO like in the context of #UN80 and more @DrTedros @ProfJanabi @UNGuinea_Bissau @GuineOms @OmsBissau @WorldBankGroup @WHOWPRO @WHOSEARO @WHOAFRO @WHOEMRO @pahowho

I thank @WHO’s Member States for the progress they have made on the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system annex of the WHO Pandemic Agreement. With urgency and continued commitment, remaining differences will be resolved and the world will be better prepared for the next pandemic. who.int/news/item/01-0…

Happening Now: Excited to join the #WalkTheTalk 2026 edition from the streets of Bissau, 🇬🇼 and connect with the Global Community at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland #HealthForAll #WHA79

I was honoured to represent @WHO at the opening ceremony of the 3rd Annual Meeting of the West Africa Mathematical Modelling Capacity Development (WAMCAD) Consortium here in Bissau on 13 May 2026. This meeting comes at a very important time. Across West Africa, countries continue to face a high burden of malaria and neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), while also working with limited resources and increasingly complex public health challenges. This is why mathematical modelling matters. It helps countries use data more strategically, anticipate risks, guide interventions, and support better decisions for malaria control and elimination. For WHO, science is at the heart of public health action. We place great importance on generating, translating and using scientific evidence to support countries in making informed, timely and equitable decisions. The objectives of WAMCAD are very relevant to this agenda: building local scientific capacity, strengthening collaboration between researchers and national malaria programmes, and creating a sustainable West African network across anglophone, francophone and lusophone countries. For WHO, this is closely aligned with our mission to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable, and with our values of trust, excellence, integrity, collaboration and care for people. It is also fully connected to with the Team Europe Initiative Support to National Public Health Institutes to deliver Essential Public Health Functions, which support generation and translation of data and evidence into policy and implementation, anchored on the World Health Organization 14th General Program of Work or #GPW14 which places strong emphasis on country impact, equity, stronger health systems, better data, innovation, and partnerships to advance the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We particularly welcome the fact that this initiative is not only about producing models, but about strengthening African leadership, ownership and capacity to generate evidence that directly informs national public health priorities. @GuineOms congratulates #INASA for hosting the WAMCAD Consortium and all partners involved, and reaffirms its commitment to supporting evidence-informed, equitable and sustainable public health action in Guinea-Bissau and across the region. @DrTedros @ProfJanabi @UNGuinea_Bissau @WHOAFRO @OmsBissau

To the people of Tenerife, My name is Tedros, and I serve as the Director-General of the @WHO, the @UN agency responsible for global public health. It is not common for me to write directly to the people of a single community, but today I feel it is not only appropriate, it is necessary. I want to speak to you directly, not through press releases or technical briefings, but as one human being to another, because you deserve that. I know you are worried. I know that when you hear the word “outbreak” and watch a ship sail toward your shores, memories surface that none of us have fully put to rest. The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID-19. the current public health risk from #hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now. The virus aboard the MV Hondius is the Andes strain of hantavirus. It is serious. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families. The risk to you, living your daily life in Tenerife, is low. This is the WHO’s assessment, and we do not make it lightly. Right now, there are no symptomatic passengers on board. A WHO expert is on that ship. Medical supplies are in place. Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries. You will not encounter them. Your families will not encounter them. I also want to say something else, something that goes beyond the science. I personally thanked Prime Minister @sanchezcastejon for #Spain’s decision to receive this ship. I called it an act of solidarity and moral duty. Because that is what it is. I want you to know that the WHO’s request to Spain was not made arbitrarily. It was made in full accordance with the International Health Regulations, the legally binding framework that defines the rights and obligations of countries and the WHO when responding to public health events of international concern. Under those rules, the nearest port with sufficient medical capacity must be identified to ensure the safety and dignity of those on board. Tenerife met that standard. Spain honoured it. Nearly 150 people from 23 countries have been at sea for weeks, some of them grieving, all of them frightened, all of them longing for home. Tenerife has been chosen because it has the medical capacity, the infrastructure, and the humanity to help them reach safety. And because I believe that so deeply, I will be there myself. I intend to travel to Tenerife to observe this operation firsthand, to stand alongside the health workers, port staff, and officials who are making it happen, and to personally pay my respects to an island that has responded to a difficult situation with grace, solidarity, and compassion. Your humanity deserves to be witnessed, not just acknowledged from a distance. As I have said many times: viruses do not care about politics, and they do not respect borders. The best immunity any of us has is solidarity. Tenerife is demonstrating that solidarity today. The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, crew and the company operating the vessel have shown exemplary collaboration at this challenging time. On behalf of the World Health Organization, and on behalf of those passengers and their families around the world, I thank the people of Tenerife and everyone else involved. Please take care of yourselves and of each other. Trust in the preparations that have been made. And know that the WHO stands with you, and with every person on that ship, every step of the way. With respect, care, and gratitude, Tedros

It is vital that African countries continue to drive global health architecture reform to shape and own the outcomes, especially through the WHO-hosted joint process converging health initiatives together. @WHO and partners are now designing this process, with humility and guided by the principles of country priorities, national sovereignty, regional cooperation, equity, solidarity and accountability. We look forward to presenting this, along with the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS) annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement, for Member States’ consideration at the World Health Assembly next month. I thank @AfricaCDC and its Director General, my brother, @Dr_JeanKaseya for convening the African High-Level Ministerial Committee on the Reform of the Global Health Architecture. My remarks to the Committee: who.int/news-room/spee…

The Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) annex to the WHO Pandemic Agreement is the last remaining piece of the puzzle of the many initiatives that WHO and our Member States have established in response to the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past few years, WHO has taken several steps to make the world safer from future emergencies and pandemics including strengthening capacity for local production of vaccines and other tools, through the mRNA Technology Transfer Programme, based in South Africa, and the WHO Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative, based in the Republic of Korea. My statement at the press conference with @ACANU_Geneva: who.int/news-room/spee…

When sovereign states come together to find shared solutions to shared problems, we create a shared future. We are so close to creating that future in which pathogen samples and information are shared in a timely manner and the benefits that derive from them are also shared equitably with those who need them most. As the Sixth Meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group (IGWG) on the WHO Pandemic Agreement resumes this week, we are closer than ever to a fair and functional Agreement. I encouraged Member States to use this week to ensure we walk out as winners – not by getting everything we wanted, but by coming together, standing up for multilateralism and global health, and proving what the world can achieve when we stand together. My remarks at today's resumption of IGWG6: who.int/news-room/spee…

Congratulations to the Kingdom of #Tonga on the launch of its second Multi‑Hazard Risk Communication and Community Engagement Strategy 2026–2030. This important milestone reflects Tonga’s continued leadership and commitment to strengthening preparedness for public health emergencies through proactive, coordinated and community‑centred approaches. who.int/westernpacific…