Director-General, World Health Organization
Appears in 9 stories
Leading the WHO's Triple Elimination Initiative
Every year, roughly 120,000 children worldwide are born with HIV they could have avoided. Denmark just proved that number can be zero.
Updated May 30
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
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
Declared the PHEIC on May 17, 2026 on the advice of the IHR Emergency Committee
WHO Director-General Tedros warned on May 25 that the epidemic is 'outpacing' containment efforts. More than 900 suspected cases and 220 suspected deaths have been recorded across three DRC provinces. The virus has reached parts of North and South Kivu governed by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, whose parallel administration in Goma has blocked use of the city's main airport.
Updated May 25
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
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.
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
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
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.
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