Tedros Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), delivers a welcoming speech at the WHO annual meeting.Image: keystone
May 18, 2026, 2:39 p.mMay 18, 2026, 2:39 p.m
The World Health Assembly began in Geneva in tense times.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said at the opening of the WHO annual meeting: “We live in difficult, dangerous and divisive times.”
The WHO declared an emergency of international concern on Sunday night due to an Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This applies especially to Congo and neighboring countries. The risk of it spreading to Europe is considered low.
The heart of the pandemic contract is missing
The most important planned undertaking at this conference will not take place due to a lack of agreement among the WHO member states: the heart of the pandemic treaty, a system called Pabs (in German: access and benefit sharing for pathogens), should actually be adopted. Among other things, this is intended to regulate how countries that share a pathogen that has emerged in their country are compensated so that vaccines and medicines can be developed against it.
The pandemic contract itself was passed without Pabs last year. However, ratification in the individual countries can only begin once it is complete. (nil/sda/dpa)