Health & Pandemics: Active Crises in 2026

Malaria remained a severe global health emergency in 2024, with WHO estimating **282 million cases** and **610,000 deaths**, an increase of about **9 million cases** from 2023. WHO says the burden remains overwhelmingly concentrated in the **African Region**, which accounted for **94% of cases** and **95% of deaths** in 2024, with **75% of deaths in that region among children under 5**. The crisis is being sustained by a mix of **funding shortfalls, drug and insecticide resistance, climate-related disruption, and conflict-related access barriers**. WHO also reports that **47 countries and one territory** have now been certified malaria-free, showing progress in some settings, but the overall global trajectory in 2024 was still upward rather than improving.

Afghanistan’s health system remained in severe distress in 2025, driven by funding cuts and long-running structural fragility. WHO reported that by 4 March 2025, 167 health facilities had closed, cutting off lifesaving care for 1.6 million people across 25 provinces, and warned that more than 220 additional facilities could shut by June if funding was not restored. WHO also said 80% of WHO-supported essential health services were at risk of shutdown, with the worst-affected areas in the north, west, and northeast. The crisis was accompanied by worsening disease pressure and access barriers. WHO reported more than 16,000 suspected measles cases and 111 deaths in the first two months of 2025, alongside outbreaks of malaria, dengue, polio, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever; measles vaccination coverage was critically low at 51% for the first dose and 37% for the second. WHO’s 2025 Health Emergency Appeal said over 22.9 million people required urgent health support, while the broader humanitarian response was further strained by refugee returns, displacement, and restrictions that disproportionately affected women and girls.

Gaza remains in a severe humanitarian emergency marked by widespread displacement, damaged health infrastructure, and continuing access constraints despite the October 2025 ceasefire. UN and partner reporting says humanitarian access improved after the ceasefire, but conditions stayed critical: around 1.6 million people were still facing high levels of acute food insecurity in the late-2025/early-2026 IPC analysis, and more than 1.9 million people were reported displaced by UNICEF in October 2025. The IRC likewise says famine conditions remain a deadly reality, with nearly 55,000 children facing acute malnutrition and more than half a million people experiencing catastrophic conditions. Health-system collapse remains one of the most severe components of the crisis. A June 2026 UK government bulletin said at least 94% of Gaza’s hospitals are damaged or destroyed and only about 2,000 hospital beds remain available across the Strip. The same bulletin said that since the ceasefire began on 10 October 2025, Gaza’s health ministry reported 677 Palestinians killed and 1,800 injured, while continued insecurity and destruction have kept needs extremely high. UN reporting also notes that roughly 1.78 million tons of food entered Gaza between October 2025 and 7 June 2026, but this has not eliminated the crisis because access, distribution, and infrastructure constraints continue to limit the population’s ability to benefit fully from aid.

The global mental health crisis remains severe: WHO’s 2025 reporting says more than 1 billion people are living with a mental disorder, and most people still do not receive effective care. WHO says access is especially poor in low-income countries, where fewer than 10% of affected people receive care, compared with over 50% in higher-income countries. WHO also reports that only 71% of countries meet at least three of five criteria for integrating mental health into primary care, while fewer than 10% have fully transitioned to community-based care models. The system-level gaps remain large. WHO says mental health needs are high but responses are insufficient, with major shortages in workforce, resources, and quality of care. In the United States, NAMI reports that 52.1% of adults with mental illness received treatment in 2024, and 120+ million people live in designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas. WHO has also emphasized that depression and anxiety are the most common disorders globally, while the service gap is still wide even in high-income countries.

Yemen’s humanitarian crisis is worsening in 2026 as acute food insecurity rises and aid funding falls. UN-backed food security analysis reported that around 18.3 million people — about 52% of the population — are acutely food insecure, including about 5.2 million in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and around 41,000 in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) in some districts of Hajjah, Al Hodeidah, and Amran governorates. UN officials also warned in January 2026 that more than 20 million Yemenis would face acute food insecurity and tens of thousands could face famine-like conditions as humanitarian access becomes more restricted. The crisis is being driven by prolonged conflict, economic collapse, climate shocks, and sharply reduced humanitarian support. The 2026 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan says over 22 million people need assistance, including 10.95 million women and girls, and it seeks US$2.16 billion; it also estimates 14.4 million people need water, sanitation, and hygiene support, while more than 2.2 million children under age five face malnutrition, including 516,157 with severe acute malnutrition. UN and NGO reporting also says aid cuts are reducing food, nutrition, health, and WASH interventions, with the Food Security Cluster and Nutrition Cluster under severe strain and some health facilities already closed because of funding shortfalls.

The global water crisis remains a severe, long-running humanitarian and development emergency. The latest WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme update says **2.1 billion people** still lack **safely managed drinking water**, **3.4 billion** lack **safely managed sanitation**, and **1.7 billion** lack **basic hygiene services** as of 2024. UNICEF’s data also shows that in 2022, **2.2 billion** people lacked safely managed drinking-water services, including **1.5 billion** with only basic services and **115 million** still collecting drinking water directly from rivers, lakes, or other surface water sources. The crisis is unevenly distributed and is worst in poorer, fragile, and water-stressed settings. WHO says people in least developed countries are more than twice as likely to lack basic drinking water and sanitation services, and more than three times as likely to lack basic hygiene services; in fragile contexts, safely managed drinking-water coverage is **38 percentage points lower** than in other countries. The World Bank says people with low access to drinking water services are concentrated in **Sub-Saharan Africa**. The United Nations warns that water scarcity affects every continent, and recent UN reporting continues to link the problem to climate change, drought, weak infrastructure, and unequal access to investment.

Sudan’s health system remains near collapse in 2026 amid the ongoing war, mass displacement, repeated attacks on healthcare, and widespread hunger. WHO reported in January 2026 that more than one third of health facilities nationwide were non-functional, and it reiterated in April 2026 that 37% of facilities remained non-functional across the country’s 18 states. WHO also said the conflict had driven the system to the brink of collapse and left millions without access to essential care. The crisis is being compounded by attacks on hospitals and ambulances, disease outbreaks, and severe humanitarian needs. WHO reported 217 verified attacks on healthcare since April 2023, causing 2,052 deaths and 810 injuries by April 2026; earlier January 2026 figures were 201 attacks, 1,858 deaths, and 490 injuries. The 2026 humanitarian plan says 33.7 million people need assistance, including about 21 million who need health assistance, while outbreaks of cholera, malaria, dengue, measles, and polio continue to strain an already fragile system.

Mpox remains an active public health crisis in Africa, with **clade I, especially subclade Ib**, driving sustained transmission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighboring countries. CDC says that as of April 2026, the DRC still has the majority of clade Ib cases, and transmission has continued in Central and Eastern Africa, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Republic of Congo, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. WHO’s late-2025 outbreak update also reported community transmission of clade Ib in several African countries, underscoring that the outbreak remains geographically broad and not fully contained. Recent evidence shows the epidemic continues to seed international spread. WHO reported in November 2025 that clade Ib had been detected without recent travel in multiple WHO regions, and by that point community transmission was considered established in several countries outside Africa. CDC notes that travel-associated clade I cases have largely been linked to subclade Ib and that these infections have generally been milder, but the DRC remains the epicenter of the ongoing African outbreak.

South Asia’s extreme-heat crisis is worsening, with India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and parts of the wider region facing recurring pre-monsoon heatwaves that are intensifying health, power, and economic stress. A World Weather Attribution analysis found that the April 2026 heatwave in northwestern India and Pakistan was made about 15 times more likely and about 1.0°C hotter by human-caused climate change, with at least 37 heat-related deaths reported in India and 10 in Pakistan during the episode, alongside record electricity demand and agricultural drought conditions affecting more than 1 million km². The economic and labor impacts are now a central part of the crisis. The World Bank reported in July 2026 that extreme heat in South Asia is already costing the equivalent of 31 million full-time jobs each year and could reduce the region’s economy by nearly 7% by 2050 without adaptation. The same report says informal workers can lose about 40% of earnings during heatwaves, and Bangladesh alone is estimated to have lost US$1.3–1.8 billion in 2024 from heat-induced productivity losses. Regional monitoring and response efforts are expanding, but the risk is outpacing adaptation. The World Meteorological Organization says Asia is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, and the World Bank warns that extreme heat is now a structural constraint on jobs, growth, and basic services across South Asia. The World Weather Attribution report also notes that the event strained electricity systems, including a 16% generation shortfall in Bangladesh and up to 10 hours of daily power cuts in rural Bangladesh.

The global cholera outbreak remains **active and worsening** in 2026. WHO’s February 2026 epidemiological update reported **16,912 new cholera and acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) cases in January 2026** across **19 countries, territories, and areas** in **three WHO regions**, with **182 deaths** and the **African Region** carrying the highest burden, followed by the **Eastern Mediterranean** and **South-East Asia** regions. WHO’s cholera upsurge tracker says the organization still considers the global risk **very high** and continues urgent response operations. By late July 2026, ECDC reported **132,313 cholera cases and 1,556 deaths globally since 1 January 2026**, with new cases reported from **Afghanistan, Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Myanmar/Burma, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen**. The same update identified the largest case counts in the **Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan, Somalia, Central African Republic, and Malawi**, while the largest new death counts were in **Sudan, DRC, Central African Republic, Angola, and Cameroon**.

Myanmar remains at high risk for measles transmission because conflict and displacement have left millions of people needing humanitarian assistance, while routine immunization and health services continue to be disrupted. UNICEF’s latest Myanmar humanitarian report says more than 3.3 million people are internally displaced and in need of life-saving assistance, and it has helped deliver first-stage measles-rubella vaccinations to more than 300,000 children under age one. The main concern is for children in conflict-affected and displaced communities, where missed vaccines, malnutrition, and limited access to care can make measles more severe and harder to control. Recent reporting does not provide a new Myanmar-wide case count or death tally, but historical national data show measles outbreaks clustered in underserved regions and linked to poor vaccination coverage, including 2,673 reported cases and 23 measles deaths from 2014 to 2018, with 85% of cases occurring in 2017–2018. UNICEF and WHO continue to emphasize measles vaccination, surveillance, and outbreak response as the key measures to prevent wider spread.

Uganda’s 2026 Ebola outbreak is now in an enhanced-surveillance phase after no new cases were reported after 21 June 2026, and the last confirmed patient was discharged on 16 July after two negative tests. WHO says Uganda has recorded 20 confirmed cases and 2 deaths, with all cases reported in Kampala District and no community transmission detected so far. The outbreak is linked to Bundibugyo virus, a form of Ebola for which WHO and MSF report there is currently no approved vaccine or specific treatment, making rapid isolation, contact tracing, and infection-prevention measures the core response tools. WHO reports that Uganda’s cases have been associated with health-care settings and cross-border movement, while most cases in the wider 2026 outbreak have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the outbreak has also spread to North Kivu and South Kivu.

Haiti experienced a renewed cholera surge in 2025, with health authorities recording 2,852 suspected cases, 186 confirmed cases, and 48 deaths between January 1 and October 30, 2025. The outbreak has been concentrated in and around Port-au-Prince in the West department, with localized spread also reported in other communes and departments, including Pétion-Ville, Delmas, Cité Soleil, Léogâne, Carrefour, Artibonite, Centre, Nippes, Nord, and Sud-Est. The resurgence is occurring amid severe insecurity, major displacement, and weak water and sanitation services. Human Rights Watch reported that more than 1.4 million people were displaced in 2025, many into overcrowded settlements with limited clean water and sanitation, while the UN has estimated that only 25% of households have sufficient handwashing facilities with soap and 70% lack improved sanitation. PAHO and partners have supported surveillance, treatment, chlorination, and hygiene efforts in displacement sites, but case control remains difficult where gang violence restricts humanitarian access and health services are only partially functional.