"DISEASE PREVENTION"

Ahead of the World Chagas Day, Unitaid says that it remains committed to improving access to testing and treatment to reduce mother-to-child transmission of Chagas. UNITAID

UNICEF, WFP and WHO are extremely concerned about the situation in Tigray region where the risk of famine is imminent, unless food, livelihood assistance and other life-saving intervention continue to be scaled, unimpeded access is guaranteed, and hostilities cease. UNTV CH

Briefing by Brenden Varma, Spokesperson for the President of the 75th Session of the General Assembly.

The number of schoolchildren affected by COVID-19-related school closures soared by 38 percent in November, placing significant strain on the learning progress and well-being of an additional 90 million students globally. UNICEF

Welcoming delegates back to the General Assembly Hall for the first in-person plenary meeting since March of this year, General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande said efforts made by member states "are critical as we begin the Decade of Action and Delivery to implement the Sustainable Development Goals, or as it is likely to become, the decade of recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic." UNIFEED

Launching a new report on zoonotic diseases, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Inger Andersen, said, “we were warned that the current pandemic was not a matter of if but when. And it is a human failing that we predict, but we do not prepare.” UNIFEED

UN Refugee Agency UNHCR and partners are racing against time to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in South Sudan, Africa’s youngest country, recovering from a civil war that forced millions of people to flee their homes and one of the continent’s largest humanitarian crises. UNHCR

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the respiratory disease Novel Coronavirus, is not yet an official Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) but warned that it is an emergency in China. WHO

Adjourning a meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee until tomorrow as it seeks more information, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “if we're going to keep the world safe, transparency is number one.” WHO

In 2018, over 140,000 people, mainly children, died from measles globally according to new World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates. UNICEF and partners are conducting measles vaccination campaigns in the hardest-hit areas as well as providing medical supplies for treatment. UNICEF