Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

New Capabilities

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. On February 27, 2026, the World Health Organization validated Denmark as the first European Union country to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of both HIV and syphilis, confirming that routine prenatal screening and treatment drove new infant infections to zero across four consecutive years.

Updated Feb 28

New Capabilities

Serving second term as WHO Director-General

Four in ten cancer cases worldwide could be prevented. That finding, from the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer, marks the first time researchers have quantified the combined burden of behavioral, environmental, occupational, and infectious causes of cancer using global 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 Feb 19

Money Moves

Advocating for health funding amid broader aid cuts

In December 2025, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) cut its 2026 humanitarian appeal to roughly $33 billion, down from $47 billion requested for 2025, after governments provided only about $15 billion in 2025 – the lowest level of support in a decade. Just three weeks later, however, the United States pledged a landmark $2 billion to OCHA-managed funds, providing roughly two-thirds of the funding needed to reach 87 million people in the most catastrophic need. The new plan concentrates resources on the worst emergencies, including over $4.1 billion for Palestinian areas, $2.9 billion for Sudan, and $2.8 billion for the regional Syria response. In early February 2026, the World Health Organization launched a separate $1 billion appeal for 36 health emergencies – down one-third from the prior year – after reaching only one-third of its 2025 targets due to collapsed funding.

Updated Feb 4

Rule Changes

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 Feb 2

New Capabilities

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 Jan 30

New Capabilities

Leading global health coordination

In 1950, the average human lived 47 years. Today, it's 73. The global age-standardized mortality rate has dropped 67% over that span—driven not by a single breakthrough but by the compounding effects of vaccines, clean water, antibiotics, and basic sanitation reaching billions of people who previously lacked access. Lower respiratory infections (LRIs)—once the leading cause of infectious disease death—killed 2.5 million people in 2023, down 33% among children under five since 2010.

Updated Jan 25

Rule Changes

Leading WHO through budget crisis; term runs through 2027

The United States joined the World Health Organization on June 14, 1948, three years after helping design it. On January 22, 2026, the U.S. became the first country to complete a withdrawal from the agency—walking away from 77 years of leadership in global health. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. jointly announced the withdrawal's completion, citing the WHO's 'failures during the COVID-19 pandemic' and its inability to demonstrate independence from 'inappropriate political influence.' The U.S. departed without paying between $130 million and $278 million in disputed dues, with the administration asserting no obligation to pay prior to exit.

Updated Jan 23

Money Moves

Chief public advocate for fully funding polio eradication

Global donors used a pledging event in Abu Dhabi on 8 December 2025 to commit US$1.9 billion to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI), temporarily stabilizing a flagship global health campaign that is facing a 30% budget cut in 2026 and a multi‑year funding gap. The largest pledges — US$1.2 billion from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and US$450 million from Rotary International — narrow the shortfall in GPEI’s 2022–2029 strategy to roughly US$440 million but do not fully close it. The event comes as wild poliovirus transmission has resurged in Afghanistan and Pakistan and vaccine‑derived polio continues to spark outbreaks in under‑immunized communities worldwide.

Updated Dec 11, 2025