WHO: 300M people worldwide suffer from rare diseases

The member states of the 78th World Health Assembly today adopted a landmark resolution recognizing rare diseases as a global health priority, striving to ensure that no patient is left behind. The resolution acknowledges that over 300 million people globally live with one of more than 7,000 identified rare diseases, most of which begin in childhood and can cause significant physical, psychological, and financial hardships.

The resolution urges countries to integrate rare diseases into national health planning, improve diagnosis and care through universal health coverage, strengthen comprehensive policies, accelerate innovation and scientific research, and provide affordable treatment. Crucially, the resolution mandates the World Health Organization (WHO) to develop a comprehensive 10-year global action plan on rare diseases, including measurable targets to guide progress towards achieving equity, inclusion, and access to care for all affected individuals.

The 78th World Health Assembly also approved a new resolution on strengthening global health financing, reaffirming its commitment to achieving universal health coverage through the development of people-centered primary healthcare.

This resolution comes at a critical time, as external health assistance is projected to decline by 40% in 2025, alongside increasing out-of-pocket health spending and health service disruptions in many countries. This shock has triggered a global health financing emergency, further straining already overburdened health systems in low- and middle-income economies.

The new resolution outlines actions that member states can take to strengthen health financing by allocating more funds to health in domestic budgets and improving public financial management systems to achieve the greatest positive impact on population health.

The rapidly changing landscape also necessitates a renewed role for the World Health Organization; a role that will help shift domestic and global health financing architectures towards country self-reliance and sustainable progress towards universal health coverage.

The WHO will operationalize the priorities identified in the resolution by strengthening its core technical functions in data analysis, policies and standards, and monitoring and accountability. The organization will also continue to work with countries to strengthen public financing as the cornerstone of resilient health systems that deliver high-quality, affordable, and equitable healthcare for all.