Below are extracts from Dr Tedros's opening remarks at today's media briefing, focusing on child health.
Full statement here including link to video recording: https://www.who.int/news-room/speeches/item/who-director-general-s-openi...
18 March 2026
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening.
The improvement in child survival over the past two decades is one of the great success stories of global health.
In 2000, more than 10 million children died before their fifth birthday.
Today, that number has been cut by more than half to 4.9 million deaths in 2024, according to new estimates published today by WHO, UNICEF and other partners.
Millions of children are alive today because countries and partners invested in proven solutions: vaccines, skilled care at birth, treatment for severe acute malnutrition, and stronger primary health care...
Every day, about 6300 newborns die.
The most common causes are complications of prematurity, labour and delivery.
If children survive the first month, malaria, pneumonia and diarrhoea continue to claim many young lives...
But we know what works – there are solutions.
By strengthening primary health care, expanding immunization, improving maternal and newborn care, and ensuring every child has access to nutrition and lifesaving treatment, we can accelerate progress again...
One of the main reasons for the decline in child mortality is immunization.
In 1974, only 5% of the world’s children were vaccinated against killer diseases including measles.
Today, that number stands at 85%...
Tuberculosis, or TB, is another example of a major global health challenge against which the world has made great progress.
Since 2000, efforts to fight TB have saved an estimated 83 million lives.
But cuts in global health funding and increasing drug resistance are threatening to reverse these gains.
Each day, over 3300 people die from TB and more than 29 000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease.
Millions more are not diagnosed or treated...
Finally, the conflict in the Middle East continues to impact the health of people across the region...
WHO is doing whatever we can to save lives and prevent suffering.
But as always, the best medicine is peace.
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HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org