To mark World Health Day 2026, the World Health Organisation has called on governments, institutions, and individuals everywhere to renew their commitment to science and international collaboration. Since WHO was founded on April 7, 1948, scientific breakthroughs have consistently redefined what is possible in medicine. Penicillin ended infections that once killed millions.

Vaccines eradicated smallpox entirely. Over the past 50 years, global immunisation efforts saved over 154 million children from infectious diseases. The measles vaccine alone saved over 90 million children. Despite decades of progress, WHO warns that health threats are growing - driven by climatechange, environmental degradation, geopolitical tensions, and emerging diseases with pandemic potential. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus says science remains humanity’s most powerful tool, pointing to vaccines, germ theory, MRI machines, and genome mapping as examples of breakthroughs that transformed billions of lives. WHO adds that scientific innovations only work when widely adopted - meaning collaborationbetween scientists, policymakers, health workers, and the public is non-negotiable. Science gave us surgery without pain, cancer screenings, and HIV management. The gainsare undeniable. The question is not whether science works. It clearly does.

That answer determines what the next 78 years of global health looks like. And that one ison all of us.