The right to breathe clean air is one of the most fundamental rights of every person on our 🌏 So, to help everyone enjoy the beauty of clean air and blue sky days, WHO and other United Nations 🇺🇳agencies in Viet Nam 🇻🇳are committed to joining hands with Govt & other partners to create a brighter, healthier and greener future for all. What do you like to do when the air is clean and the sky is blue? Happy #WorldEnvironmentDay, from our @WHO team in Viet Nam, including Dr @angepratt and @UNICEF_vietnam, @unwomenvietnam, @UNFPAAsiaPac, @UNDPVietNam, @uninvietnam, @unfpa_vietnam, @IOMVietNam, @UNIDOVIETNAM, @unescobangkok, @ptamesis, @RamlaKhalidi, @MattJacksonUN #WED #AirQuality WATCH📺youtu.be/u8hgKum2HrE

Sức khỏe là vàng. #Health is gold. A simple yet profound Vietnamese saying that underpinned my memorable conversation with His Excellency President Tô Lâm - whom I had the privilege of meeting amid his state visit to the Philippines, where the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office is based. His Excellency, who also leads the Viet Nam Communist Party, assumes his leadership roles at a remarkable moment in his country’s trajectory. Over the past 80 years of independence, Viet Nam has transformed from a war-torn, impoverished nation into a model for public health. Life expectancy at birth has risen from under 40 years to over 74 years today. Infant and under-5 mortality rates have dropped sharply, alongside the eradication of neonatal tetanus and #polio. #Immunization has helped contain #measles and Japanese encephalitis, protecting millions of children. Aggressive initiatives have drastically reduced #tuberculosis prevalence and brought the country very close to its malaria elimination target. Vietnam has achieved over 90% health insurance coverage. The country has a comprehensive three-tier delivery model – at central, provincial and commune levels - to guarantee access to health services even in remote regions. I congratulated His Excellency on these wide-ranging triumphs, even as we discussed the challenges that remain - and new opportunities to be harnessed. The growing burden of non-communicable diseases – from cardiovascular diseases to #diabetes and #cancer – is being tackled through a dual focus on disease prevention and primary health care. Viet Nam has taken landmark steps towards tackling the harms of tobacco - at a time when new nicotine products aimed at young consumers are endangering a new generation. Megatrends, including climate-related health impacts and population #ageing, are being addressed through innovative approaches under accelerating health reforms. The Government is embracing digital technology to bring about efficiencies and expand access to health care including in remote areas. Absorbing the lessons of COVID-19, Viet Nam is further strengthening health emergency preparedness mechanisms, including under the updated International Health Regulations – so vital in our interconnected region and world. Complementing all this is the urgent need to further develop and strengthen the health workforce. President Tô Lâm expressed Viet Nam’s wish that WHO provide significant support on all these fronts. In turn, His Excellency noted that Viet Nam has a long history of traditional medicine, fully integrated into the national healthcare system alongside Western medicine, and is keen to share its knowledge across our region and globally. Viet Nam’s founding father, Hồ Chí Minh once said, “Health is the greatest asset of each person and all of society. Health is the foundation of happiness for all, and for the development of the country.” Xin cam on – thank you, Your Excellency, for your leadership as we work together to achieve #HealthForAll. @WHOWPRO @WHOVietnam @angepratt @MOFAVietNam @VietNam_UN @uninvietnam @VNGovtPortal @VietnamNewsVNS @vietnamenglish

Four organizations in Viet Nam were honored globally by WHO this week with #WorldNoTobaccoDay Awards for their outstanding contributions to protecting families and communities from tobacco-related harm! Vice Minister Mr Vu Manh Ha received the awards from WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on behalf of all the award winners: 🏆Department of Legislation, Ministry of Health 🏆Health Policy and Strategy Institute 🏆Poison Control Center Bach Mai Hospital 🏆Viet Nam National Tobacco Control Fund. The awards celebrate Viet Nam’s commitment to a stronger and healthier future. Major recent milestones include tax reforms that are estimated to: ✅ Help 2.1 million people in Viet Nam quit or avoid smoking by 2031 ✅ Prevent 700,000 premature deaths over the coming decades ✅ Generate VND 24,000 billion in additional annual Government revenue by 2031 and ✅ Reduce access to low-cost cigarette brands, especially among vulnerable youth. ❤ WHO Viet Nam warmly congratulates all the award winners and is proud to be working together with you for a stronger, safer and healthier Viet Nam!

Dear people of Tenerife, Greetings from Geneva. It is Tedros again. Our work in Tenerife is done. And it was done with grace. Last Monday, I stood at the port of Granadilla de Abona and watched the last of the passengers from the MV Hondius board the vehicles that would carry them home. I watched health workers in protective equipment move with calm professionalism. I watched Spanish officials coordinate with quiet precision. And I watched and felt your support and solidarity. And I thought of the letter I wrote to you just days ago, and how everything that your Spanish Government and the @WHO promised came to pass, exactly as described. More than 120 people from 23 countries have safely disembarked and are now being cared for and monitored by public health professionals while in transit or upon arrival in their home countries. They arrived in fear and uncertainty. They left carrying something they could not have expected to find in Tenerife: the dignity of being cared for by strangers from your community, and people around the world, who chose to help. The risk assessment held. The protocols worked. The corridor held. Science and solidarity operated in coordination, as they must, as they can, when we trust each other. But I do not want this moment to be remembered only as a logistical success. What happened here in Tenerife was something rarer than competence. It was moral courage, the willingness of an entire island, an entire nation, to say: these are human beings, and we will not turn away from them. The government of Prime Minister @sanchezcastejon honoured its obligations under international law and then went beyond them, with warmth, speed and care. Ministers @Monica_Garcia_G, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, and @avtorresp led with great commitment. The port authorities of Granadilla executed a complex operation flawlessly. The health teams who boarded that ship, who stood at the port gates, who rode in those vehicles: they did their jobs not because it was easy, but because it was right. To Captain Jan Dobrogowski and his 26-member crew still onboard of the MV Hondius and sailing now to the Netherlands: you held your passengers together through weeks of grief and confinement. History will not forget that. To you, the people of Tenerife, who opened your island not with applause or fanfare but with quiet, steady acceptance: I want you to know what that means to the world. You may never meet the passengers and crew who transited your port. But those 150 people and their families know that somewhere in the Atlantic, there was an island community that said “yes.” That community was you. We live in a time when it is easy to close doors, to turn inward, to let fear harden into hostility. Tenerife chose differently. You have written something into the record of how humanity responds to crisis, and the WHO will carry that record forward. Three people died aboard the Hondius. Their families are grieving. The conclusion of this operation does not erase that grief, and I do not want it to. Behind every public health response there are real lives, real losses and real families who will carry this forever. We also learned of the loss of a member of the @guardiacivil of Tenerife, who died of a heart attack while serving during this operation. He was here because of duty and commitment to his community. I extend my deepest condolences to his family, his colleagues, and to the entire Guardia Civil. His service will not be forgotten. The best immunity we have is solidarity. Tenerife has proven this, not as a slogan, but as a way to work, and to live. I will confess something personal. Last Monday, before the last group of passengers departed, I walked through part of your city, alone. The island was going about its day, and I found Tenerife to be genuinely beautiful: the place, yes, but above all the people. The warmth I encountered from some people who recognised me, even in the briefest exchanges, stayed with me. I wish I had come under different circumstances, on a WHO conference perhaps, or better still, simply with my family to rest. That is a wish I intend to honour. I look forward to returning to Tenerife as a visitor, not as a crisis responder, to see it the way it deserves to be seen, slowly and without urgency, with my family beside me. On behalf of the World Health Organization, on behalf of the passengers now home, and on behalf of those families around the world who watched this island with hope: thank you. From the depth of my heart, thank you. I also want to thank my colleagues from WHO headquarters and from our Regional Office @WHO_Europe in Copenhagen, who stood with me in Tenerife, and those who supported us tirelessly from afar. This was a team effort in every sense of the word. But for us, the job is not yet done, until every passenger and crew is out of quarantine and reunited with their loved ones. With profound respect, admiration and gratitude, Tedros

Congratulations, Australia 🇦🇺, on eliminating #trachoma — the world’s leading infectious cause of blindness — as a public health problem. Australia is the 30th country in the world to achieve this milestone. This marks a significant achievement for the health of Indigenous peoples and for global efforts to combat neglected tropical diseases. bit.ly/4ecfzS0

In March in Central Viet Nam, a race against time highlighted the power of collaboration, when three young brothers were hospitalized with suspected botulism and no urgently needed antitoxin available in Viet Nam. Botulism antitoxin is a rare, critical medicine that can significantly improve recovery chances if administered promptly. Within hours of the alert, WHO Viet Nam worked hand in hand with national and local health authorities, WHO’s Western Pacific Regional Office and WHO headquarters to mobilize the antitoxin from the global stockpile in Geneva, with partners, including the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency @KoreaDCA , supporting urgent financing and logistics. Through close coordination across countries, time zones and teams, the treatment reached the hospital bedsides in less than 48 hours of the initial alert — helping save three young lives and showing what is possible when we act together with purpose. Read the full story here: who.int/westernpacific/newsr… Photo credit: Da Nang Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital – Provided by the MoH

Read WHO Representative in Viet Nam Dr Angela Pratt’s op-ed: who.int/vietnam/news/comment…

Three levels of @WHO - our Headquarters in Geneva, our Western Pacific Regional Office @WHOWPRO in Manila and our @WHOVietnam Country Office in Ha Noi - have come together in an urgent effort to save the lives of three young people critically ill in Da Nang from suspected #botulism. Even as we wait anxiously for the antitoxin administered to take effect, we are so grateful to all involved - for managing to source the medicine in record time, fly it from Geneva to Ha Noi and on to Da Nang, and rush it to the hospitals where the patients are. The complex logistics, superbly expedited and executed, are a testament to the power of collaboration both within WHO and with external health partners, including the Vietnamese authorities and @KoreaDCA. Our gratitude to one and all, again and again. 🙏 @VNGovtPortal @MoFAmv @uninvietnam @angepratt @HuongTr66054629 @VietNam_UN @VietnamNewsVNS @vietnamenglish @VietnamPlus

WHO has delivered five vials of urgently needed botulism antitoxin to Da Nang to support three critically ill patients with suspected botulism. This rare, life‑saving medicine can prevent further harm and improve recovery when given quickly. After receiving the alert from national health authorities, WHO rapidly mobilized across its country office, regional office, and headquarters to source the antitoxin from the global stockpile in Geneva and arrange immediate transport to Viet Nam. WHO worked closely with the Ministry of Health, local health teams, and logistics partners to ensure the vials arrived as fast and safely as possible. Dr Angela Pratt, WHO Representative in Viet Nam, expressed deep concern for the patients and gratitude to the medical teams providing round‑the‑clock care. She emphasized that this rapid deployment highlights the importance of strong partnerships and preparedness, and reaffirmed WHO’s commitment to supporting Viet Nam’s health security. WHO also thanked The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency @KoreaDCA for its continued partnership and support. Read more: who.int/vietnam/news/detail/…