UN Women Official Says Women Face Higher Ebola Infection Risk

A UN Women official said women are more likely than men to become infected with Ebola and to die from the disease. The statement was made at a press conference during the 2026 session of the World Health Assembly in Geneva. Sofia Calltorp, chief of humanitarian action at UN Women, said the pattern has appeared in multiple outbreaks.

She noted that women and girls made up about two-thirds of reported cases in the 2018-2019 outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Calltorp said women accounted for up to three-quarters of Ebola deaths in some Liberian communities during the 2014 outbreak.

She added that women represented 56 percent of deaths in an earlier outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo 50 years ago. The official attributed the higher infection rates to social roles. She said the virus spreads through caregiving, domestic work, frontline health care, and burial practices.

Delegates discussed several topics during the assembly. Some said the meeting should avoid politicization, though political issues appeared in multiple debates. One debate concerned Taiwan's participation at the assembly. A majority of those voting did not accept Taiwan's presence.

Several countries voted on a motion concerning Iranian attacks in the Gulf region and global health supply disruptions. Tunisia voted in favor, while Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Mali, Namibia, and South Africa abstained. A UN official said on May 22 that up to $60 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund would support the response in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the surrounding region.

Taiwan organized a separate HealthTech Expo in Geneva to present medical innovations. Eswatini was the only African country to support Taiwan's participation at the assembly and took part in the expo.