GENEVA, April 15. /TASS/. At least 70 countries have experienced serious disruptions in health care due to the US suspension of funding for international and bilateral programs, World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
The WHO chief was speaking at the Pre-World Health Assembly Meeting with the Group of Francophone Ambassadors on April 14. The meeting focused on the preparations for upcoming 78th World Health Assembly to be held in Geneva in May.
"The sudden withdrawal of funding without warning has caused severe disruption to health services in at least 70 countries," the WHO press service wrote, citing Ghebreyesus as saying. "We see disruptions to information systems and supply chains, closures of health facilities, job losses for health workers, and increased out-of-pocket health spending," the WHO chief said.
"Although this decision came as a shock, we saw it coming," Ghebreyesus noted. "We are facing an income gap of 600 million dollars this year, <...> We have therefore proposed to Member States a reduced budget of 4.2 billion dollars for the 2026-2027 biennium - a 21% reduction from the original proposed budget of 5.3 billion dollars," the WHO director general specified. "We are now at the point where we have no choice but to reduce the scale of our work and workforce."
According to Ghebreyesus, "already several countries have taken steps to revise budgets, cut costs, reallocate funds and mobilize resources" in the health sector. "There are also several tools that countries can use to generate new sources of revenue. In the short term, immediate measures include introducing or increasing taxes on products that harm health, including tobacco and alcohol," the WHO chief concluded.
On January 21, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the WHO, justifying the decision with disproportionately high US contributions compared to other countries. On February 3, Washington effectively froze operations of the Agency for International Development (USAID), which had been providing a significant amount of funding to international organizations.