(Photo: Pattarapong Chatpattarasill)Recipients of the Prince Mahidol Award 2025 have called for global cooperation to strengthen public health security amid geopolitical uncertainty and conflict. The two American honourees — Professor Dr Walter C Willett (public health) and Dr Terry Dean King (medicine) — attended the award ceremony on Wednesday in Bangkok. The war in Ukraine, he said, has disrupted the global supply of sunflower oil, a kitchen staple, while the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) has posed challenges to global health security. It requires regional and global cooperation to limit the impacts by strengthening and empowering public health systems,” he said. “Thailand has made great advances in public health and medicine due to the prince’s efforts,” he said.

Source: Bangkok Post January 28, 2026 21:21 UTC