WHO Resolution on skin disease: a tool for advocacy  

WHO Resolution on skin disease: a tool for advocacy

By Dr Hannah Saunders, FEI 

On 24 May 2025, the World Health Organization adopted an important new resolution to recognise skin diseases as a global public health emergency. We explain the background and content of the resolution, and what it might mean for the millions of people across the world living with skin conditions. 

Skin disease – the reality

As some of us know only too well, in many communities across the world people with skin disease are marginalised and ignored. From a healthcare perspective, often people are unable to access medical treatments for their skin conditions¹. This can be due to a lack of trained dermatology workers,² not enough funding,³ limited access to medicines or sunscreen,⁴ and other factors.  

The social impact of this can be devastating. Untreated skin diseases can be both very visible and poorly understood (including worries about contagion)⁵ leading to ostracization. This can sometimes even occur within healthcare settings if workers are inadequately trained.⁶ People with skin diseases can, as a result, be denied opportunities to work, attend school and participate in social life.⁷  

The WHO resolution

Working in partnership with NGOs, the Ivory Coast led a group of states (including Nigeria, Colombia, Egypt, Micronesia, Togo and China) to petition the WHO. They called for more to be done to address skin diseases through a global initiative. Their work has just led to a new WHO resolution.  

The resolution is fairly long but worth reading. Important points to note are that states are urged to: 

• prioritise skin conditions, including them in national health programmes and allocating adequate resources (note, though, that the resolution does not itself come with funding so this may still be a challenge) 

• collect better data about the treatment of skin conditions and promote research 

• ensure better training for healthcare workers on skin conditions 

• promote fair access to affordable, high-quality treatment and medicines 

• innovate to help dermatology care reach remote areas e.g. through digital platforms 

• accelerate efforts to achieve the skin-related targets of the neglected tropical disease road map by 2030. (The road map is a WHO initiative which aims to prevent, control and eliminate a diverse set of neglected tropical diseases).  

• support skin disease patient support groups and their participation in policy

States should also be supporting advocacy efforts to highlight the medical, social, economic and public health burden of skin diseases, and cooperating to reduce the stigma, discrimination and mental health problems caused by skin diseases. Collaboration is encouraged to advance access to affordable prevention tools, diagnostics and treatments.  

We can expect to see more on this in the coming months or years from the WHO. The Director-General will develop a global plan of action on public health responses to skin diseases and should support member states keen to develop and implement national strategies on skin diseases. The WHO will hear progress reports on this issue in 2029 and 2031 – so the next few years are a critical time for change. 

In the interim, the resolution should become an increasingly powerful tool for advocacy groups. Skin diseases are sometimes deprioritised due to the perception that they are ‘only cosmetic’. This resolution could help to undermine both the logic underlying that policy and the policy itself. You can check whether your country is a WHO member here.  

We will share plans of action, challenges and successes we’re aware of in this space. In the meantime, we send our congratulations to everyone who worked to achieve this resolution and our thanks for their amazing work. 

1. For stats, see Dr Esther Freeman cited in Randy Dotinga, Historic WHO Resolution Aims to Bridge Global Gap in Dermatologic Care (9 June 2025) ↩︎
2. ibid. ↩︎
3. FEI and Smiletrain, Exposing human rights violations: living with the stigma of an LMIC ↩︎
4. Antoine Gliksohn cited in Patricia Blanco, WHO resolution helps reframe skin diseases as a ‘global public health priority,’ not a ‘cosmetic issue’ 2 June 2025  ↩︎
5. See our Stigma project here  ↩︎
6. Patrick Davies of the Gate Foundation cited by Patricia Blanco, WHO resolution helps reframe skin diseases as a ‘global public health priority,’ not a ‘cosmetic issue’ 2 June 2025  ↩︎
7. FEI and Smiletrain, Exposing human rights violations: living with the stigma of an LMIC: India and Nepal ↩︎

Read more of our blogs here.