WHO warns of undetected disease outbreaks in Gaza, Sudan crisis

The World Health Organization issued a stark warning on Thursday that numerous disease outbreaks in the Gaza Strip are probably going undetected and spreading uncontrollably due to the near-complete breakdown of public health systems. WHO officials stressed that limited humanitarian access and the absence of functional laboratories have crippled disease surveillance in the besieged Palestinian territory.

"We Are Probably Missing the Vast Majority"

Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva, Teresa Zakaria, WHO's unit head for humanitarian action, described the living conditions in Gaza as beyond description. "All the basis for diseases to develop in a constricted environment with very limited access to prevention, to detection and response are all indicating that outbreaks can really spread out of control and very rapidly," she stated. Zakaria emphasized that without detection capacity, "we are probably missing the vast majority of diseases that are spreading in the territory at the moment." She reiterated the urgent need for unhindered humanitarian access to revive the health system.

WHO's Funding and Staffing Crisis

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, at the same briefing, detailed a severe financial and operational crisis facing the global health agency. He pointed to steep cuts in development assistance and the US withdrawal from WHO, which have created a salary gap of about $500 million over two years. Patrick Nicollier, WHO's human resources chief, explained that despite attempts to shield staff, the agency had to cut an additional 1,280 positions after 1,100 left through attrition, citing that voluntary measures "were not enough."

Vaccine Safety and Other Global Concerns

Tedros also addressed public health misinformation, announcing that a latest review by the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety confirmed, for a fourth time, "no causal link between vaccines and autism." He called vaccines "among the most powerful, transformative inventions in the history of humankind." Separately, he warned of a desperate and overlooked crisis in Sudan, where over 14 million are displaced and cholera deaths are the highest in the world. He urged the international community to give the situation "the right attention."