{"id":211063,"date":"2026-05-18T23:09:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:09:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-health-assembly-opens-in-geneva-switzerland-world-health-organization-who\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T23:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T23:09:49","slug":"world-health-assembly-opens-in-geneva-switzerland-world-health-organization-who","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/world-health-assembly-opens-in-geneva-switzerland-world-health-organization-who\/","title":{"rendered":"World Health Assembly opens in Geneva, Switzerland &#8211; World Health Organization (WHO)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.who.int\/about\/governance\/world-health-assembly\/seventy-ninth\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" data-sf-ec-immutable=\"\"><\/a><a href=\"\/about\/governance\/world-health-assembly\/seventy-ninth\">Seventy-ninth\u202fsession of the World Health Assembly&nbsp;<\/a>(WHA79) opened in Geneva, Switzerland today,&nbsp;with&nbsp;the election of&nbsp;Dr V&iacute;ctor El&iacute;as Atallah Lajam&nbsp;of the Dominican Republic&nbsp;as the President of the Health Assembly.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>The elected Vice-Presidents\u202fare&nbsp;Dr Mohamed Ali Al-Ghouj&nbsp;of&nbsp;Libya,&nbsp;Dr Assa Badiallo Tour&eacute;&nbsp;of&nbsp;Mali,&nbsp;Mrs Katarzyna Dr\u0105\u017cek -Laskowska of Poland,&nbsp;Mrs Neesha Mehta&nbsp;of&nbsp;Nepal, and&nbsp;Mr Elias Kapavore&nbsp;of&nbsp;Papua New Guinea. Dr Timur Sultangaziyev&nbsp;of Kazakhstan and&nbsp;Dr Kwabena Mintah&nbsp;Akandoh&nbsp;of Ghana are the Chairs of the Committee A and Committee B, respectively.&nbsp;<br \/>During the high-level welcome, H.E. Elisabeth&nbsp;Baume\u2011Schneider, Federal Councillor of the Swiss Confederation, addressed the Health Assembly on behalf of the host country, followed by remarks from H.E. John Dramani Mahama, President of Ghana and Special Guest of Honour.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br \/>Delegates also heard video messages from H.E. Ant&oacute;nio Guterres, United Nations&nbsp;Secretary\u2011General, H.E. Ahmad Al Sharaa, President of the Syrian Arab Republic, and H.E. Mia Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados.&nbsp;<br \/>Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO&nbsp;Director\u2011General,&nbsp;<a href=\"\/news-room\/speeches\/item\/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-79th-world-health-assembly-high-level-welcome---18-may-2026\">addressed the Assembly<\/a>&nbsp;and then&nbsp;presented the&nbsp;<a href=\"\/news\/item\/18-05-2026-director-general-presents-award-for-global-health-to-four-distinguished-leaders\">Awards&nbsp;for Global Health<\/a>\u202fto&nbsp;Dr Tore Godal, Dr Merceline Dahl-Regis, Dr Mike&nbsp;Ryan&nbsp;and Dr Heba El Sewedy,&nbsp;recognizing their lifetime achievements and exceptional contributions to improving the health and well-being of communities worldwide.&nbsp;<br \/>Special Guest,&nbsp;H.E. Pedro Sanchez,&nbsp;Prime Minister of Spain,&nbsp;addressed&nbsp;the&nbsp;Assembly at the conclusion of the&nbsp;afternoon&nbsp;session in the Plenary.&nbsp;<br \/>&nbsp;<br \/>Media Contacts<br \/> WHO Media Team<\/p>\n<p>World Health Organization                    <br \/>Related<br \/>News<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMilgFBVV95cUxOcVJhRDFyY3h3bmw0RVM4TldmZGN2T3RaejVoeTFlUVVKcVp6bmkxRjB3UWk4c0VZMk9Cb3NKRzJnc3JYd3B6dUx5eU5iR2s0VTNXLVBjWjdqU1Q0cXJ0eW9ybWd3ZTMyWlMycVF6SHlkX01EN1N1azI0YUx3UXZNM0djcTNHbkk0NDZOVDNrTXJpT2w0amc?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The&nbsp;Seventy-ninth\u202fsession of the World Health Assembly&nbsp;(WHA79) opened in Geneva, Switzerland today,&nbsp;with&nbsp;the election of&nbsp;Dr V&iacute;ctor El&iacute;as Atallah Lajam&nbsp;of the Dominican Republic&nbsp;as the President of the Health Assembly.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The elected Vice-Presidents\u202fare&nbsp;Dr Mohamed Ali Al-Ghouj&nbsp;of&nbsp;Libya,&nbsp;Dr Assa Badiallo Tour&eacute;&nbsp;of&nbsp;Mali,&nbsp;Mrs Katarzyna Dr\u0105\u017cek -Laskowska of Poland,&nbsp;Mrs Neesha Mehta&nbsp;of&nbsp;Nepal, and&nbsp;Mr Elias Kapavore&nbsp;of&nbsp;Papua New Guinea. Dr Timur Sultangaziyev&nbsp;of Kazakhstan and&nbsp;Dr Kwabena Mintah&nbsp;Akandoh&nbsp;of Ghana are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-211063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}