Deadly virus outbreaks underscore the urgency of completing an international pandemic treaty, World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told negotiators in Geneva. Citing Ebola Bundibugyo spreading in Africa, the ongoing Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and an earlier hantavirus outbreak, he stressed that protecting people required action against threats that could spread across borders.
The Pandemic Agreement was adopted in May 2025 as a framework for managing future COVID-like pandemics. To secure that agreement, however, countries deferred a contentious question: how its central sharing mechanism would function. Wealthy and developing nations remain divided over its practical operation.
That mechanism, the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing system, governs access to pathogens with pandemic potential and the distribution of vaccines, diagnostics and treatments derived from them. Tedros contrasted the record speed of COVID-19 vaccine development with the inequalities in access, as some countries secured excessive supplies while others were left waiting.
Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said timely vaccine access and affordable medicines had been recurring concerns in his meetings across all six WHO regions. Writing on X, he called for rapid sharing of pathogen samples and data, coupled with equitable distribution of the resulting medical products, to avoid repeating the disparities experienced during COVID-19. Kluge is currently on special leave while campaigning to become WHO Director-General.
