China can help WHO improve global health

A few weeks ago, as the newly elected director-general of the World Health Organization, I undertook one of my first official country visits, to Yemen. That country, after two years of conflict and the complete collapse of basic public services, is now suffering from the largest cholera outbreak in the world, in one of the greatest humanitarian crisis anywhere. Malnutrition is rampant, and famine appears imminent. Some 15 million people have no access to healthcare or to clean water and sanitation.

WHO is now engaged, with many partners, in an intensive effort to improve this situation as rapidly as possible. China has been a key contributor to this effort, and we are especially grateful for this country's commitment to global health and safety through generous financial support to our work in Yemen.

China's support is an example of the solidarity the world needs to deal with crises. It is a demonstration of the strong commitment to global health that China has been making for years. This country has a track record of more than 50 years of cooperation with, and aid to, Africa. One of the most recent instances of this support was its dispatch of Emergency Medical Teams to West Africa to assist in the Ebola outbreak. In addition to its support in emergencies, China's capacity to manufacture high-quality, safe, and effective vaccines, medicines, and medical devices promises to become a critical global resource for health.