GENEVA — The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has made an urgent plea for global leaders to persuade the United States to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the U.N. health body. This request was made during a closed-door meeting with diplomats last week, where Dr. Tedros emphasized that the U.S. would face severe consequences by missing out on critical global disease outbreak information.
The WHO is grappling with the potential financial and operational fallout from the U.S. withdrawal. At a key budget meeting on January 28, 2025, German diplomat Bjorn Kummel raised concerns about the impact of the U.S. exit, stating, “The roof is on fire, and we need to stop the fire as soon as possible.” The U.S. has been the WHO’s largest contributor, providing approximately $988 million, or 14% of the agency’s $6.9 billion budget for the 2024-2025 period.
Internal WHO documents reveal that many of the agency’s vital health programs, particularly in emergency response, rely heavily on U.S. funding. The U.S. has been covering over 40% of WHO’s large-scale emergency operations and plays a significant role in funding key programs addressing polio eradication, tuberculosis, and HIV across various regions.
In the face of this financial crisis, WHO’s finance director, George Kyriacou, warned that the organization could find itself in a precarious financial position by the first half of 2026 if the current rate of spending continues without the U.S. contribution. The lack of U.S. funds has also led to a deficit for WHO, and many past payments from the U.S. remain unsettled. At the same time, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been instructed to cease its collaborative work with WHO.
During the same budget meeting, Dr. Tedros clarified that, despite the U.S. withdrawal, WHO continues to provide U.S. scientists with necessary data. However, the exact nature of this data is not disclosed. He urged member countries to continue pressing the U.S. to reconsider its departure, stressing the importance of global health collaboration and information sharing. “Bringing the U.S. back will be very important,” Dr. Tedros said, appealing to WHO member states.
The loss of U.S. funding and participation has raised alarm about the future of the agency’s health programs, especially in regions like the Middle East, Africa, and Europe, where U.S. support for tuberculosis efforts is particularly significant. Countries such as Bangladesh and France have sought clarity on how WHO plans to manage its operations in light of the funding gap.
Experts have pointed out that the U.S. exit presents a critical moment for WHO, but also a potential opportunity to reshape global public health priorities. Matthew Kavanagh from Georgetown University emphasized that although the U.S. contributes a relatively small percentage of its health budget to WHO, its absence will lead to worse health outcomes for Americans due to a loss of access to vital health data and disease tracking capabilities.
Despite the challenges posed by the U.S. withdrawal, WHO officials remain hopeful that member countries will work together to bridge the funding gap and maintain the integrity of global health operations. As Dr. Michael Ryan, WHO’s emergencies chief, put it, “The U.S. is leaving a community of nations. It’s essentially breaking up with you.”
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