WHO is celebrating a historic year 2023, which saw the end of the Covid-19 pandemic

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, on Tuesday gave a relatively positive assessment of a “historic” year 2023 in which the organization declared the end of the international emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Be able to.

“This marked a 180 degree turn in the world from then on. Three years of crisis, pain and loss around the world.” He recalled in an end-of-year message saying he was “happy because life is back to normal.”

Tedros emphasized that the WHO also ended the public health emergency due to MPox (which it renamed monkeypox) in 2023, although, as in the case of Covid-19, this does not mean that there no infections will persist in several countries. . .

The WHO’s top politician also emphasized the approval of new vaccines this year. Malaria, dengue and meningitis, diseases that threaten millions of vulnerable people around the world, while “the road to polio eradication is already in its final stages”.

Regarding the negative part of the current year, Tedros recalled in particular the war between Israel and Hamas, in which hospitals and health workers were repeatedly attacked and many health centers in fact became real battlefields.

The WHO chief stressed that only a quarter of Gaza’s hospitals were still operational (9 out of 36), and reiterated his call for a ceasefire.

Tedros also recalled in his message the resurgence of cholera in the world, with a record number of outbreaks worldwide, around forty.

Tedros hopes to conclude ongoing negotiations on a future pandemic preparedness contract by 2024, to avoid mistakes like those made during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Next year offers us a unique opportunity to solve these problems,” emphasized the head of the WHO, an organization that celebrated its 75th anniversary this year.