WHO boss Chan launches $100 million health emergency fund

Reuters
World Health Organisation Director-General Margaret Chan gestures during her address to the 68th World Health Assembly at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, May 18, 2015. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse

GENEVA (Reuters) - World Health Organization director-general Margaret Chan announced on Monday that she was establishing a $100 million contingency fund to ensure that the U.N. agency has the resources to respond immediately to a major crisis. Admitting that the WHO had been "overwhelmed" by the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, Chan also told its annual meeting that she was creating a new program for health emergencies linking its three levels - country, regional and Geneva headquarters. "I do not ever again want to see this Organization faced with a situation it is not prepared, staffed, funded, or administratively set up to manage," Chan told health ministers. "I plan to complete these changes by the end of the year." (Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay; Editing by Kevin Liffey)