WHO / HEALTH EMERGENCIES

STORY: WHO / HEALTH EMERGENCIES
TRT: 06:44
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 19 OCTOBER 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

SHOTLIST:

FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior WHO Headquarters

19 OCTOBER 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, press conference
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Now to the Ebola outbreak in Uganda. In total, there have now been 60 confirmed and 20 probable cases, with 44 deaths, and 25 people have recovered. We remain concerned that there may be more chains of transmission and more contacts than we know about in the affected communities. The Ministry of Health is investigating the most recent eight cases, as initial reports indicate they were not among known contacts.”
4. Wide shot, press conference
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme World Health Organization (WHO):
“The gap is that this is an Ebola virus with the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus, and these vaccines that were developed for West Africa and Congo are not effective against that strain.”
6. Wide shot, press conference
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme World Health Organization (WHO):
We currently have three candidate vaccines at least there are others, but there are two vaccine candidates that are immediately potentially available. We are working with the Oxford group in the UK, with SII in India, with the Sabin Vaccine Institute, with BARDA with CEPI, and others to be able to bring those vaccines to the field as soon as possible.”
8. Wide shot, press conference
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Now to cholera. Around the world, 29 countries have reported outbreaks this year, including 13 countries that did not have outbreaks last year. Cholera is highly dangerous and can kill within a day, but it can be prevented with two doses of safe and effective oral vaccines. Since 2013, WHO, UNICEF, Médecins sans Frontières, and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have jointly managed a global stockpile of cholera vaccines to help control epidemics. However, the current wave of outbreaks is putting unprecedented pressure on the stockpile. As a result, the four agencies have decided to suspend the two-dose strategy in favor of a one-dose strategy so that more people receive some protection from limited stocks. The one-dose strategy has proven effective in previous outbreaks, although evidence on how long protection lasts is limited. However, this is clearly less than ideal, and rationing must only be a temporary solution.”
10. Wide shot, press conference
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization (WHO):
The cholera pandemic has been going on for 50 years. 50 years. And we have the means to stop it. Two-dose OCV vaccine, safe water, safe sanitation, and again the issue is, we cannot end the pandemic because we are not prepared collectively to put in place the basic human rights of water and sanitation and basic immunization in those areas at risk. And it is a sad day for us to have to go backward to go to a one-dose strategy which is lifesaving. It is an emergency measure. We shouldn't have to do it. And it is purely based on the availability globally of vaccine
12. Wide shot, press conference
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Sylvie Briand, Director, Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, World Health Organization (WHO):
“With climate change and the warming of certain water places and deltas in the world, we see that bacteria can multiply much faster, and this is why also we have a much bigger outbreaks in certain places in the world. And I think this is why it is so important first to look at Cholera as a global issue because with climate change, we know that other places can become sort of endemic places for cholera and secondly because it is very important to understand that if we can prevent an outbreak in places where the cholera is in the environment, we will have much better control on the risk.”
14. Wide shot, press conference
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Last week, the Emergency Committee on COVID-19 met to discuss the global situation and the way forward. The committee’s view is that COVID-19 remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and I agree. The committee emphasized the need to strengthen surveillance and expand access to tests, treatments, and vaccines for those most at-risk and for all countries to update their national preparedness and response plans.”
16. Wide shot, press conference
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Didier Houssin, Chair, International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on COVID-19:
“It is too early to terminate the Public Health Emergency of International Concern. There are still too many deaths, there is still too much uncertainty regarding the variants, the pathogenic effect, the immune escape effect, and there is still too much fear that termination of the PHEIC might aggravate existing inequalities in access to vaccines or therapeutics and might demobilize all the efforts engaged to prepare for a future pandemic.”
18. Wide shot, press conference
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“There is no other situation globally in which 6 million people have been kept under siege for almost two years. Banking, fuel, food, electricity, and health care are being used as weapons of war. Media also is not allowed, and every destruction of the civilians is done in darkness. Even people who have money are starving because they can’t access their bank for two years. Children are dying every day from malnutrition. There are no services for tuberculosis, HIV, diabetes, hypertension, and more – those diseases, which are treatable elsewhere, are now a death sentence in Tigray.”
20. Wide shot, press conference
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“This is a health crisis for 6 million people, and the world is not paying enough attention. I urge the international community and the media to give this crisis the attention it deserves. There is a very narrow window now to prevent genocide. I repeat, there is a very narrow window now to prevent genocide in Tigray.”
22. Wide shot, press conference

STORYLINE:
The World Health Organization (WHO) chief told journalists today (19 Oct) in Geneva that there are now 60 confirmed and 20 probable cases of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in Uganda, with 44 deaths and 25 people that have recovered.

He added, “We remain concerned that there may be more chains of transmission and more contacts than we know about in the affected communities. The Ministry of Health is investigating the most recent eight cases, as initial reports indicate they were not among known contacts.”

Also briefing journalist today in Geneva, WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, Executive Director Michael Ryan, explained, “the gap is that this is an Ebola virus with the Sudan strain of the Ebola virus, and these vaccines that were developed for West Africa and Congo are not effective against that strain.”

Ryan also said, “We currently have three candidate vaccines at least, there are others, but there are two vaccine candidates that are immediately potentially available. We are working with the Oxford group in the UK, with SII in India, with the Sabin Vaccine Institute, with BARDA with CEPI, and others to be able to bring those vaccines to the field as soon as it's possible.”

On Cholera, Tedros said that around the world, 29 countries had reported outbreaks this year, including 13 countries that did not have outbreaks last year.

He stressed, “Cholera is highly dangerous and can kill within a day, but it can be prevented with two doses of safe and effective oral vaccines.?

Since 2013, WHO, UNICEF, Médecins sans Frontières, and the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have jointly managed a global stockpile of cholera vaccines to help control epidemics.

“However, the current wave of outbreaks is putting unprecedented pressure on the stockpile,” Tedros said.

He continued, “As a result, the four agencies have decided to suspend the two-dose strategy in favor of a one-dose strategy so that more people receive some protection from limited stocks. The one-dose strategy has proven effective in previous outbreaks, although evidence on how long protection lasts is limited. However, this is clearly less than ideal, and rationing must only be a temporary solution.”

Ryan stressed that the cholera pandemic has been going on for 50 years, “and we have the means to stop it. Two-dose OCV vaccine, safe water, safe sanitation, and again the issue is, we cannot end the pandemic because we are not prepared collectively to put in place the basic human rights of water and sanitation and basic immunization in those areas at risk. And it is a sad day for us to have to go backward to go to a one-dose strategy which is lifesaving. It is an emergency measure. We shouldn't have to do it. And it is purely based on the availability globally of vaccine.”

Also addressing journalists, WHO’s Sylvie Briand, Director of Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness, said that with climate change and the warming of certain water places and deltas in the world, “we see that bacteria can multiply much faster, and this is why also we have much bigger outbreaks in certain places in the world.”

She continued, “this is why it is so important first to look at Cholera as a global issue because with climate change, we know that other places can become sort of endemic places for cholera and secondly because it is very important to understand that if we can prevent outbreaks in places where the cholera is in the environment, we will have a much better control on the risk.”

Last week, the Emergency Committee on COVID-19 met to discuss the global situation and the way forward.

According to WHO’s chief, the committee’s view is that COVID-19 remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, “and I agree,” said Tedros.

The committee emphasized the need to strengthen surveillance and expand access to tests, treatments, and vaccines for those most at-risk and for all countries to update their national preparedness and response plans.

Professor Didier Houssin, Chair of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee on COVID-19, stated that it is too early to terminate the Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

He explained, “There are still too many deaths, there is still too much uncertainty regarding the variants, the pathogenic effect, the immune escape effect, and there is still too much fear that termination of the PHEIC might aggravate existing inequalities in access to vaccines or therapeutics and might demobilize all the efforts engaged to prepare for a future pandemic.”

About Tigray, Tedros said there is no other situation globally in which 6 million people have been under siege for almost two years.

He continued, “Banking, fuel, food, electricity, and health care are being used as weapons of war. Media also is not allowed, and every destruction of the civilians is done in darkness. Even people who have money are starving because they can’t access their bank for two years. Children are dying every day from malnutrition. There are no services for tuberculosis, HIV, diabetes, hypertension, and more – those diseases, which are treatable elsewhere, are now a death sentence in Tigray.”

This is a health crisis for 6 million people, and the world is not paying enough attention, Tedros warned and urged the international community and the media to give this crisis “the attention it deserves.”

He stressed, “There is a very narrow window now to prevent genocide in Tigray.”