GENEVA / ZIKA UPDATE

In its latest update, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that Zika virus is now “implicated” in large numbers of brain damaged babies. WHO

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:57
• Production Date: 22 March 2016
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: MARGARET CHAN
• Corporate Name: WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION - WHO
• Subject Topical: HEALTH HAZARDS
• MAMS Id: 1588198
• Parent Id: 1588198
• Alternate Title: unifeed160322dd

Description

STORY: GENEVA / ZIKA UPDATE
TRT: 1:57
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 22 MARCH 2016, GENEVA - RECENT

Shotlist

RECENT – GENEVA

1 Close up, WHO flag

22 MARCH 2016, GENEVA

2. Wide shot, presser
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“The status of Zika has changed from a mild medical curiosity to a disease with severe public health implications. The knowledge base is building very rapidly.”
4. Cutaway,
SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“Evidence supports the likelihood that Zika infection during pregnancy will have a broad range of effects on the developing fetus, beyond microcephaly, as we originally thought.”
Cutaway,
SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“On present knowledge, no one can predict whether the virus will spread to other parts of the world and cause a similar pattern of foetal malformations and neurological disorders. If this pattern is confirmed beyond Latin America and the Caribbean, the world will face a severe public health crisis.”
Cutaway,
SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Christopher Dye, Director of Strategy and Policy, World Health Organization:
“Some of the studies now emerging suggest that perhaps 1 percent of all infections will lead to severe neurological disorders. But if we just take that as an approximation, then we know already that there are thousands of cases of microcephaly in just one part of Brazil.”
Cutaway,
SOUNDBITE (English) Margaret Chan, Director-General, World Health Organization:
“There is now scientific consensus that Zika virus is implicated in these neurological disorders. The kind of urgent action called for by this public health emergency should not wait for definitive proof. In terms of new medical products, the experts agreed that a reliable, point-of-care diagnostic test is the most urgent priority.”
Wide shot,

Storyline

In its latest update, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that Zika virus is now “implicated” in large numbers of brain damaged babies.

Speaking in Geneva today (22 Mar) Director-General Margaret Chan said that the status of the virus had changed from a “mild medical curiosity to a disease with severe public health implications.”

She said that the virus was currently circulating in 38 countries and territories and that presently,
“noone can predict whether the virus will spread to other parts of the world” but if pattern is confirmed beyond Latin America and the Caribbean, “the world will face a severe public health crisis.”

Christopher Dye, the WHO chief of strategy and policy, said that the expectation is that across the Americas, there will be thousands more cases which will require more financial investment for control and health services.

At present, more than 30 companies are working on, or have developed, potential new diagnostic tests. Twenty-three projects are being worked on by 14 vaccine developers in the US, France, Brazil, India, and Austria. The vaccine will be used to protect pregnant women or women of child-bearing age, so it must meet an extremely high standard of safety.

WHO’s strategic response framework asks for (USD) 56 million and the agency estimates that at least some of the projects will move into clinical trials before the end of this year, but several years may be needed before a fully tested and licensed vaccine is ready for use.