{"id":42809,"date":"2026-03-07T03:04:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=42809"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:04:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:04:38","slug":"me-war-to-impact-pakistan-polio-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=42809","title":{"rendered":"ME war to impact Pakistan polio fight"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>The Middle East war has forced the World Health Organization to suspend operations at its global emergency logistics hub in Dubai, the UN agency\u2019s chief said Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the impact of the conflict, sparked by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Saturday, \u201cgoes beyond the immediately affected countries\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOperations at WHO\u2019s logistics hub for global health emergencies in Dubai are currently on hold due to insecurity,\u201d he told a press conference.<\/p>\n<p>On top of that, $1.6 million in polio laboratory supplies were being held up, which could have dire impacts for Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the disease is endemic, she cautioned.<br \/>\nBalkhy said the WHO was discussing and coordinating with authorities in the United Arab Emirates on how to continue using the hub.<\/p>\n<p>It was also in discussions with other countries and humanitarian partners on using other hubs in Nairobi, Dakar and Brindisi to establish other routes.<\/p>\n<p>If the conflict draws out, Balkhy acknowledged there could be a need to discuss \u201call types of potential road routes or ground routes, potentially through the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia\u201d, but said the WHO hoped it would not need to do so.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Dubai hub is an extremely important lifeline for the humanitarian response,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the Dubai logistics hub processed more than 500 emergency orders for 75 countries around the world, Hanan Balkhy, the WHO\u2019s Eastern Mediterranean regional director, told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHumanitarian health supply chains are now being jeopardised,\u201d she warned.<\/p>\n<p>Balkhy explained that \u201cthe hub\u2019s operations are temporarily on hold due to insecurity, airspace closures and restrictions affecting access to the Strait of Hormuz\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The disruption, she said, was \u201cpreventing access to $18 million in humanitarian health supplies while another $8 million in shipments cannot reach the hub\u201d. It was affecting more than 50 emergency supply requests from 25 countries.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Middle East war has forced the World Health Organization to suspend operations at its global emergency logistics hub in Dubai, the UN agency\u2019s chief said Thursday. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the impact of the conflict, sparked by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran on Saturday, \u201cgoes beyond the immediately affected countries\u201d. \u201cOperations at WHO\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42809\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}