WHO receives support and funds

International organisations and scientist have come out in support of the World Health Organisation in kind and financially, in a week when US President Donald Trump announced that he would suspend funding to the world body.

President Trump said he was displeased with the manner in which WHO handled the Covid-19 pandemic and called it China-centric among other grave accusations.

New Zealand, Germany and Britain came out in support of the body and its Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

The US accounts for 17 per cent of the WHO’s budget, money that goes towards supporting weak and fragile health systems in countries such as Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

“Any issue of funding to the WHO will be a matter of concern to us because, as you can see, we are depending on them for a lot of things,” said Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Health Mutahi Kagwe.

He was referring to a consignment of swabs and viral transport medium, extraction kits, medical disposable protective clothing, ventilation machines and thermometer guns from the WHO and other partners.

Dr Tedros has shied away from responding directly to President Trump’s scathing attacks, but in a live press briefing on Wednesday said the agency regrets President Trump’s decision.

Health officials fear that the work of the WHO in fighting diseases and improving healthcare systems around the world could be jeopardised, not just during the Covid-19 pandemic, but other programmes such as polio eradication, which receives substantial funds from the US.

Speaking to The EastAfrican on Thursday, Mark Suzman, the chief executive of the Gates Foundation, announced a further $150 million donation towards the development of a vaccine.