GENEVA, Switzerland — The head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, came out swinging at the opening ceremony of the 69th World Health Assembly in Geneva.
The meeting of health officials from nearly 200 countries is usually a low-key, bureaucratic affair. Chan, however, opened the assembly by basically saying that the world is facing unprecedented global health challenges right now and is ill-equipped to deal with future threats.
She warned against profit-oriented policies that put lives in danger, creating “slow-motion disasters” like climate change, antibiotic resistance and the rise of chronic non-communicable diseases.
Chan also said that the world must take action to prepare for outbreaks of diseases that haven’t even been discovered yet.