A room at Gandhi Hospital in Tehran, Iran, following a strike on the state TV communications tower and nearby buildings across the street during the United States' and Israeli's joint military campaign, on Monday, 2 March, 2026. (Keystone/AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

🗳️Iran health bid fails at World Health Assembly as Lebanon proposal passes by wide margin. Member states gathered in Geneva for the annual assembly rejected an Iranian initiative on attacks against its health facilities conducted by the US and Israel this year, while overwhelmingly backing a parallel proposal on the impact of Israel’s war against Hezbollah on Lebanon’s healthcare infrastructure.

Bringing you the latest from UN press briefings in Geneva.

🦠RACE AGAINST THE CLOCK. Health experts, aid workers and public officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda are sprinting to contain the outbreak of a deadly strain of the Ebola for which there is no vaccine, amid uncertainty over the number of infections and how far the virus has spread. As of yesterday, there were 500 suspected cases and 130 suspected deaths reported – although experts warn this figure is likely to be much higher.

Serious concern. WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the 79th World Health Assembly on Tuesday, he was "deeply concerned" by the scale and the speed of the epidemic, prompting his decision to take the rare step of declaring a public health emergency on Sunday before meeting with the Emergency Committee – the only time a director general has done so. "I did not do this lightly," he said.

Needle in a haystack. There is no approved vaccine or treatment for this particular strain of the virus, named Bundibugyo after the region in Uganda where it was first detected in 2007. A WHO technical advisory committee met yesterday in Geneva, on the sidelines of the World Health Assembly, to discuss available options. Among them, there's the Ervebo vaccine, which was used against another strain of the virus. But even if this or another vaccine was approved, it would take at least two months before being available, the health body's DRC representative told reporters yesterday.

What they said. Speaking to reporters in Geneva from Ituri, Dr Anne Ancia warned that while it may be two months until a vaccine is available, "it is not two months before the outbreak will be done". "Remember the previous one? It took two years," she said, referring to the last major outbreak in 2014 that resulted in over 28,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths by the time it was over in 2016.

US steps in. The United States issued a statement last night said it would fund up to 50 treatment clinics, and associated frontline costs in virus-hit regions, in what it said signalled its "ironclad commitment" to response efforts. It comes after an America national who was tested positive was flown to Germany yesterday. The funds – the amount of which wasn't detailed – will be disbursed through pooled funding vehicles administered by the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. There was no mention of the WHO in its statement after turning its back on the organisation this year.