THE head of the World Health Organization urged countries this week to carry out reforms needed to prepare for the next pandemic, hailing their "historic" decision to accept a major budget hike at the UN agency's annual assembly.
Speaking at the assembly weeks after ending the global emergency status for the COVID-19 pandemic, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (pictured), said it was time to advance negotiations on preventing the next pandemic.
"We cannot kick this can down the road," he said in a major address to the agency's member states, warning that the next pandemic was bound to "come knocking".
"If we do not make the changes that must be made, then who will? And if we do not make them now, then when?" he said.
The 10-day annual World Health Assembly in Geneva, which coincides with the WHO's 75th anniversary, is set to address global health challenges including future pandemics, eradicating polio and supporting steps to ease Ukraine's health emergency triggered by Russia's invasion.
The WHO's 194 member states are now drafting a pandemic treaty which is up for adoption at next year's assembly.
"A commitment from this generation is important, because it is this generation that experienced how awful a small virus could be," said Ghebreyesus.
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