| No images? Click here  Thursday, 18 September 2025 POST-PRESSER LINKS Virtual press conference on global health issues The virtual press conference hosted by WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was held today Thursday 18 September 2025. MEDIA CENTER - Presser (Full) 18SEP2025 - AUDIO - MP3 https://terrance.who.int/mediacentre/presser/WHO-AUDIO_Press_Conference_18SEP2025.mp3 CANTO - Presser (Full) 18SEP2025 - AUDIO - MP3 https://who.canto.global/s/JFATS?viewIndex=0&from=list&display=thumbnail CANTO - Presser (Full) 18SEP2025 - VIDEO - MP4 https://who.canto.global/s/OB1UC?viewIndex=0&from=list&display=thumbnail ******************** WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing – 18 September 202518 September 2025 Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. First, yesterday was World Patient Safety Day. Around 1 in 10 patients globally are harmed in health care, and more than 3 million people die every year due to unsafe care. This year, our focus is on patient safety for children. Children are not small adults, and should not be treated as such. They need medical care that’s tailored to their age, size, development, and life circumstances. The most common causes of harm in child patients are medication and diagnostic errors, infections contracted during care, surgical errors and missed warning signs when a child’s condition gets worse. We can address these problems through safer systems, supported health workers, and engaged children and families. Because nobody should be harmed when seeking care. === Next week, I will join world leaders in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. The highlight of the week for WHO will be the High-Level Meeting on Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health, to be held next Thursday, the 25th of September. Noncommunicable diseases – or NCDs – include 7 of the world’s top 10 causes of death, including cancers, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease. NCDs are the world’s leading causes of premature death, killing 18 million people every year before the age of 70. In addition, more than 1 billion people face mental health conditions, and suicide is the third-leading cause of death among young people. Apart from cutting lives short and robbing families of their loved ones, these deaths also incur huge costs for health systems and economies. In the Sustainable Development Goals, countries set themselves a target to reduce premature mortality from NCDs by one-third globally by 2030. There has been some progress. The new Lancet NCD Countdown, supported by WHO, shows that in nearly 80 percent of countries, deaths from NCDs declined between 2010 and 2019. However, progress is nowhere near enough to meet the SDG target. In 60 percent of countries, progress has slowed compared to the decade before, and in some places, deaths from NCDs are rising again. The main outcome of next week’s high-level meeting will be a political declaration, which countries have been negotiating for the past year. The draft declaration includes concrete and ambitious targets: To see 150 million fewer tobacco users by 2030; To see 150 million more people with access to mental health care; And to see 150 million more people with hypertension control. Next week, WHO will publish a report with new estimates on the number of people living with hypertension. Hypertension can be controlled with medicines to lower blood pressure, but in most low-income countries, people do not have access to those medicines. Hypertension control is one of a range of evidence-based, cost-effective tools countries can use to meet the targets in the declaration. We call them the “Best Buys.” These include raising taxes on tobacco and alcohol, protecting children from the marketing of unhealthy food, promoting physical activity, improving diets, and screening for cancer. They are all proven, practical, and ready to use. Today, we are launching a new investment case for NCDs, which shows that implementing these “Best Buys” would cost countries about US$ 3 per person, per year. We estimate that for every dollar countries invest in the “Best Buys”, they can expect up to a US$ 7 return in social and economic benefits. By 2030, fully implementing these Best Buys could save 12 million lives, prevent up to 28 million heart attacks and strokes, and generate over US$ 1 trillion in economic benefits. This is not theoretical; countries are doing it. Brazil has cut smoking rates in half by steadily increasing tobacco taxes. Mexico’s tax on sugary drinks reduced consumption while raising significant government revenue. Thailand channels tobacco and alcohol taxes into its national health promotion foundation. There are many more examples, which show that with the right policies, change is not only possible – it is transformative. Investing in NCD prevention is not a cost – it is one of the smartest economic decisions any government can make. But often, governments face fierce opposition from industries that profit from unhealthy products. The message is clear: countries that act decisively will save millions of lives, protect families, cut health costs, and unlock economic growth. Those that delay will pay the price in lost lives, rising healthcare costs, and weaker economies. We look forward to countries adopting the political declaration next week, and more importantly, to implementing it. === Now to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DRC. It’s been two weeks since the Government of the DRC declared an Ebola outbreak, near the central town of Bulape. So far, 48 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, and 31 people have died. I congratulate the government, the Ministry of Health and DRC’s institutions for their leadership in this response. Years of investment and experience are paying off. WHO and our partners are supporting the government. So far, we have delivered more than 14 tons of essential medical equipment and supplies, and deployed 48 experts. More than 900 contacts have been listed and are being followed-up. Vaccination of contacts, potential contacts and frontline workers is underway. We have also helped to set up an Ebola treatment centre with 48 beds, with 16 patients currently being treated. Courses of the monoclonal antibody therapy Mab114 have also been sent to treatment centres in Bulape, and so far, 14 patients have received the drug. And on Tuesday this week, the first two patients to recover were discharged. This week, WHO launched an appeal for US$ 21 million to support DRC to scale up its response. We ask donors to support this response. Your investment now will help to save lives, and stop this outbreak at the source. === The outbreak is another example of the need to build strong emergency response capacities nationally, regionally and globally. At the World Health Assembly last year, WHO Member States adopted a set of amendments to the International Health Regulations. Tomorrow, those amendments enter into force. The key changes include the addition of a new level of global alarm, a “pandemic emergency”, which is higher than a “public health emergency of international concern”, that we call PHEIC. The amendments also include the creation of “National IHR Authorities”, to coordinate the implementation of the Regulations in countries; And they include provisions to strengthen access to medical products and financing, based on equity and solidarity. As you know, at this year’s World Health Assembly, Member States also adopted the WHO Pandemic Agreement; And this week, they are negotiating an annex to the Agreement, the Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system, which aims to ensure faster sharing of pathogens with pandemic potential, and equitable access to the medical products needed to respond to them. We expect the outcome of these discussions to be adopted at the World Health Assembly next May, following which countries can sign and ratify the Pandemic Agreement. === Finally, to Gaza. Israel’s military incursion and evacuation orders in northern Gaza are driving new waves of displacement, forcing traumatized families into an ever-shrinking area, as famine persists. Gaza's health system continues to be overwhelmed by the influx of mass casualties, limited medical stocks and supplies, and a shortage of medical equipment and blood units. Yesterday, the Al-Rantisi hospital was attacked while 80 patients were inside – the only specialized pediatric hospital left in the Gaza Strip. Escalating violence blocks access and prevents WHO from delivering lifesaving supplies. We continue to call for an immediate end to these inhumane conditions. We continue to call for the hostages to be released. And we continue to call for a ceasefire. This Sunday is the International Day of Peace. If there’s one thing our world needs desperately right now – in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan and elsewhere – it’s peace. Not just on one day, but every day. Tarik, back to you.
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Thursday, September 18, 2025
POST-PRESSER LINKS: Virtual press conference on global health issues - 18 September 2025
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