A recent mpox outbreak in East Sussex marks the sixth case in the UK since October. New infections have also been reported across Europe and North America. Concurrently, Tanzania's president confirmed a Marburg virus outbreak, contradicting previous denials and highlighting the necessity of the World Health Organization (WHO) in combating global health crises. The article critiques President Trump's move to withdraw the US from the WHO, emphasizing that effective management of infectious diseases, including emerging Covid variants, relies on international cooperation, which is further complicated by financial disparities in WHO contributions among nations.
These two new reports of infectious diseases, thousands of miles apart, emphasise why, if a World Health Organization did not exist, it would have to be created to identify and prevent the spread of infectious diseases worldwide.
While the current WHO was created in 1948 under the umbrella of the United Nations, there has been an international global health organisation in the more than 170 years since 1851, the first being set up to deal with cholera.
The official executive order says that China, with a population of 1.4 billion, has 300% of the population of the United States, yet contributes nearly 90% less to the WHO.
In fact, the USA pays $130m in assessed contributions and China pays $88.
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