Middle East Health eNews

Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, receives the Gold Medal of Honour from Ali Abdullah Saleh, the President of Yemen

On Saturday 16 October 2010, Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, received the Gold Medal of Honour from Ali Abdullah Saleh, the President of Yemen. The Gold Medal of Honour, one of the most prominent awards in Yemen, was given to Dr Gezairy in recognition of his long years of international humanitarian service, particularly the support he has extended to Yemen in the field of public health.

During the event attended by Dr Abdulkarim Yehia Rasae, Minister of Health, Yemen and Ghulum Popal, WHO Representative to Yemen, the President paid recognition to Dr Gezairy’s efforts and leadership during his years of service as WHO Regional Director.

The Regional Director extended his gratitude for this honorable recognition. He pointed out the many improvements he had witnessed in Yemen’s health sector. In particular, he praised Yemen’s national immunisation campaigns to reduce child mortality and also the country’s tireless fight against polio, malaria, tetanus, measles and schistosomiasis. He said that it was a source of pride that the country had stopped polio virus circulation and measles was on its way towards being eliminated. He also noted Yemen’s exemplary achievements in reducing the prevalence of malaria and also the considerable progress that had been made in eradicating schistosomiasis. The Regional Director added that the partnership between WHO and Yemen’s Ministry of Health had resulted in many achievements in primary health care and basic development needs, all of which were in line with Yemen’s national strategies and needs.

Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, has appealed to the international community to double its response effort to the floods hitting parts of Pakistan. Dr Gezairy called for preventive measures to be undertaken to halt the outbreak of infectious and waterborne diseases among nearly 20 million flood-affected people, suffering from severe illness, hunger and loss of shelter and property.  

credit: © Abdul Majeed Goraya/IRIN

The Regional Director is expected to make a field visit to Pakistan to assess the situation and follow up on the relief work and health services being provided by WHO, in collaboration with other UN agencies and humanitarian organisations in flood-stricken provinces.

He pointed out that in previous floods, many deaths among victims had not resulted from drowning or directly from the disaster, but rather from the terrible situation following the floods, particularly the acute shortage of food and potable water, disease outbreaks such as cholera and typhoid, deteriorating healthcare services, insufficient numbers of health personnel and increasing mortality among children as a result of measles and polio.

Dr Gezairy added that there had been nearly 1,600 deaths, in addition to tens of thousands of people inflicted with diarrhea, malaria, skin diseases, respiratory and eye infections, reptile bites and insect stings.

He said that the disaster in Pakistan was an example of the perils of man-made climate change of which WHO and environmental activists have been warning. He noted that victims of the Pakistani flood outnumbered the total number of victims of the 2004 Tsunami, the 2005 earthquake in Kashmir and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti combined.

It is expected that this phenomenon will increase globally with  tens of millions of  people vulnerable to malaria, hunger and water shortages over the next decades.

“To reduce the risks [of climate change] greenhouse gas emissions have to be reduced which requires a reversal of global bad practices contributing to the problem,” said Dr Gezairy.

Mondher Zenaidi, Minister of Public Health in Tunisia unveils the inauguration plaque in the presence of Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general and Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, Regional Director, WHO Eastern Mediterranean

The WHO has opened a building in Tunis, Tunisia, to house a representative office and the WHO Mediterranean Centre for Health Risk Reduction. The opening was inaugurated on 12 July by Mondher Zenaidi, minister of public health in Tunisia in the presence of Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general, Dr Ibrahim Mohamed Abdel Rahim, WHO Representative in Tunisia, and Dr Hussein A. Gezairy, Regional Director, WHO Eastern Mediterranean.

The building has an information centre and a large conference hall to accommodate various WHO meetings. It will also be used as a headquarters to implement public health related activities in Tunisia.