Tedros urges countries in Geneva to “finish the job” as rich and developing nations remain split over pathogen-sharing system
The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said deadly outbreaks such as the Ebola epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo show the urgent need to complete an international pandemic treaty.
Speaking on Monday as the ninth round of talks towards finalising the deal opened in Geneva, he urged countries to “finish the job”. He said completing the treaty was “about protecting people”. “A pathogen threat anywhere can become a threat everywhere, to people of every country,” he said, according to a written version of his statement.
Tedros pointed to the hantavirus outbreak earlier this year, which killed three people on a cruise ship in April. He also cited the Ebola outbreak declared in May, which has killed nearly 5,000 of more than 10,000 people infected, mostly in the DRC. He said the key lesson of Covid-19 was that “no country can protect itself from pandemics by acting alone”.
Countries adopted a Pandemic Agreement in May 2025 as a framework for handling future Covid-like pandemics. They left out how its key mechanism would work, and wealthy and developing nations remain at loggerheads over it. That mechanism is the Pathogen Access and Benefit-Sharing (PABS) system. It covers how to share access to pathogens with pandemic potential, and benefits derived from them such as vaccines, tests and treatments.
