Marrakech to Host Meeting on Health Diplomacy Next March (WHO)

Geneva - A meeting on health diplomacy will be held next March in Marrakech to discuss ways to improve global pandemic preparedness, announced, on Monday in Geneva, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"In March, we will bring together ministers of health, finance and foreign affairs at the Marrakech Meeting on Health Diplomacy, to discuss what can be done to improve preparedness globally," said Ghebreyesus, who was speaking at the opening of the 146th session of the WHO executive board.

Last year, he noted, "the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board published its first report which concluded the world remains dangerously unprepared for a global pandemic". 

"For too long, the world has operated on a cycle of panic and neglect. We throw money at an outbreak, and when it's over, we forget about it and do nothing to prevent the next one,” stressed the WHO's Director General.