The World Health Organization said Thursday it backs US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s push for more focus on prevention to tackle chronic diseases.
Kennedy has drawn criticism from the United Nations health agency and others for his vaccine-sceptical stance and his Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement that promotes it.
But WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he did support the health minister’s focus on the promotion of healthy habits and prevention.
“On the secretary of health’s position on non-communicable disease, it’s one thing that actually, as WHO, we really support what he says,” he told reporters from WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.
Tedros backed Kennedy’s assessment that the US population faces large health challenges despite the massive amounts the country spends on its healthcare system.
“The US is one of the countries that is most affected by non-communicable diseases,” he said, pointing out that the country is one of the 20 countries worst hit by obesity globally.
The WHO “quite agrees that the investment or the expenditure in health is disproportionately high in the US”, he added.
He suggested that high US health costs were linked to the country’s long-term focus “not on promotion and prevention but … on treatment”.
“Treating cardiovascular disease, treating cancer, treating other non-communicable diseases is very expensive,” he said.
“It would be more effective if the country can invest in addressing the root cause.”
A special event during the UN General Assembly in New York next week will tackle the question of improving the fight against non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, which are the leading causes of death globally.
Tedros said he hoped to work with the United States, which is in the process of withdrawing from his agency, to give this approach “priority”.
“We expect the US to lead on this,” he said.
Via AFP По материалам: http://www.planet-today.com/2025/09/who-backs-new-us-focus-on-tackling.html