GENEVA, May 19 (AFP): The deadly hantavirus and Ebola outbreaks are only the latest crises in "dangerous and divisive" times, the World Health Organization chief said Monday.
Opening the body's annual decision-making assembly in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke of the new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which he declared an international health emergency over the weekend, and the rare hantavirus outbreak on the MV Hondius cruise ship.
The 2026 World Health Assembly comes after a particularly difficult year for WHO, weakened by the announced US withdrawal and deep funding cuts.
"The WHO's budget has been reduced by around 21 percent, or nearly one billion dollars. Hundreds of jobs have been eliminated, programs have been reduced," Swiss Health Minister Elisabeth Baume-Schneider noted in her address.
"The WHO had to, and was able to, undergo profound reform in the midst of the emergency."
While the notice period has expired, Washington has still not paid its 2024 or 2025 dues, owing around $260 million.
When WHO's executive board met in January, Israel submitted a resolution to approve Argentina's withdrawal -- something countries are expected to discuss during the assembly -- but not a word was said about the US.
Diplomats and observers indicated there was broad agreement that it would be better to maintain a grey zone around the US status.
Much of this week's discussions will centre on whether to launch a formal reform process for the so-called "global health architecture" -- a mishmash of organisations that do not always work together and often overlap.
The United States said Monday it is bolstering precautions to prevent the spread of Ebola, including screening air travelers from outbreak-hit areas and temporarily suspending visa services.
The measures shared by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) come as the World Health Organization has declared the deadly Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) an international health emergency.
United States was attempting to evacuate six additional people for health monitoring, Satish Pillai, the health agency's Ebola response incident manager, told journalists in a briefing.
In addition to screening at airports, the CDC said it was implementing entry restrictions on non-US passport holders if they had traveled to Uganda, DRC or South Sudan within the past 21 days.
The US Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, said it had temporarily paused all visa services, and that impacted applicants had been notified.
There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the strain responsible for the current spread of the highly contagious hemorrhagic fever.
Ninety-one reported deaths are suspected to have been caused by the current surge in cases, according to the latest figures released on Sunday by Congolese Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba.
Around 350 suspected cases have been reported. Most of those affected are aged between 20 and 39 and more than 60 percent are women.
Meanwhile, scientists attempting to determine whether or not hantavirus is present in Argentina's Ushuaia on Monday laid the very first traps to catch rodents potentially carrying the disease, AFP journalists observed.
The MV Hondius cruise ship, where a hantavirus outbreak on board killed three people and triggered a global health scare, set sail from the city at Argentina's southernmost tip on April 1.
Beginning Monday, biologists from Buenos Aires are spending several days setting traps at various locations on the southern island of Tierra del Fuego to analyze whether the captured rodents carry the Andes strain of the virus, the only one known to spread between people.
The rare respiratory disease, for which there is no cure, typically spreads through the urine, feces and saliva of infected rodents.
