Seoul Gazette - Europe must nurse itself after US aid cuts: WHO director

"We have a huge challenge, because the majority of our programmes were funded by USAID and the US," Hans Kluge of the World Health Organization Europe told AFP in an interview days before a meeting of the 53 countries of the WHO European region.

Since taking office in January, US President Donald Trump has slashed US international aid and effectively dismantled USAID, the world's largest humanitarian aid agency.

Kluge said the WHO was experiencing an "existential" crisis with countries such as Britain, France and Germany, in addition to the United States, contributing significantly less.

Despite a 20-percent budget cut, WHO Europe wants to boost its role within domestic European health administrations.

"The WHO Europe of the future... is healthier, stronger, trusted, evidence-based, and politically neutral," he said.

Kluge's plan is based on restructuring the organisation and prioritising its missions.

- Mental health crisis -

Kluge said WHO Europe needed a "dual track" approach needing to manage "manage a current crisis -- (it) can be war, flooding" while keeping "core public health programmes operational".

"This is the biggest lesson learned from (the) Covid-19" pandemic, he said.

In Ukraine, for example, Europe is focusing its efforts on defence and "not enough on health".

Europe must also tackle its mental health problem, aggravated by war, loneliness, anxiety and the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, he said.

"That's one of the big things, the hottest issues," he said, stressing the need to build up "citizen resilience."

One European in six and one child in five will experience mental health problems at some point in their life, according to the WHO.

Kluge said his organisation also needed to address worrying regional trends including youth addiction, a lack of online protection, the climate crisis and non-infectious diseases.

"We can channel our few resources in those directions," he insisted.

Vaccinations are also crucial, he said, pointing out that in 2023, there were 366,000 children who had never received any kind of vaccine. In 2024, that number had risen to 440,000.

Mainly reasons such as the need to travel for vaccinations, costs and a lack of qualified health personnel led to this, he said, adding that medical misinformation was rampant as well.

Vaccination is "the most cost-effective public health tool which we have. So, we cannot afford to lose it."

Prevention was also key to ensuring Europeans' health, Kluge stressed.

"You put one euro in prevention, you get seven euros out of it," said the 56-year-old doctor.

"It is time that Europe should take care of Europe."

M.Yoo--SG