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WHO / COVID-19 MONKEYPOX UPDATE
STORY: WHO / COVID-19 MONKEYPOX UPDATE
TRT: 4:39
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 6 JULY 2022, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1.Wide shot, press briefing room
2.SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
“On COVID-19. Globally reported cases have increased nearly 30 percent over the past two weeks. Four out of six of the WHO sub-regions saw cases increase in the last week. In Europe and America, BA.4 and BA.5 are driving waves. In countries like India a new sub lineage of BA.2.75 has also been detected which we’re following. "
3. Wide shot, press briefing
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan, EXD, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"So each country has gaps in its readiness, gaps in its preparedness, gaps in its surveillance. No country is without those gaps. Some of those gaps are more extreme, and many of those gaps are because of lack of access and lack of equity, but not all. And each country needs to look at its own national plan. How prepared are you? How well integrated? For example, our diagnostics now and antivirals in the health care system, are they available at the level of primary health care? Is the good triage in the hospital and primary health care management system? Are you continuing to do surveillance? Are you testing enough people? Are you sequencing? Are you sharing those sequences with the international community so we can track the virus? Are you participating in trials, like the solidarity trials to gain more knowledge on your vaccines and antivirals and other drugs?”
5. Wide shot, press briefing
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan, EXD, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"We will see differential impacts in countries. So depending on how strong that wall of immunity is in your community, depending on how well you deal with the vulnerabilities that people have, and depending on how well you're prepared to deal with that, I think we're going to see further waves of disease, and I think we will see them have a very differential impact between countries. And there is so much that countries can do now in preparation and in readiness.”
7. Wide shot, press briefing
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"On monkeypox, I continue to be concerned by the scale and spread of the virus. Across the world, there has now been more than 6,000 cases recorded in 58 countries. Testing remains a challenge and it’s highly probable that there are a significant number of cases not being picked up. Europe is the current epicentre of the outbreak, recording more than 80 percent of cases globally. In Africa, cases are appearing in countries not previously affected and record numbers are being recorded in places which have previous experience with monkeypox."
9. Wide shot, press briefing
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General:
"My teams are following the data closely, I plan to reconvene the Emergency Committee so they are updated on the current epidemiology and evolution of the outbreak, and implementation of counter measures. I will bring them together during the week of 18 July or sooner if needed. WHO is working with countries and vaccine manufacturers to coordinate the sharing of vaccine, which are currently scarce and need to be accessible to the most at risk people. WHO is also working closely with civil society and LGBTQI+ community, especially to break the stigma around the virus and spread information so people can protect themselves."
11. Wide shot, press briefing
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Mike Ryan, EXD, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
"And I think we can say, with monkeypox surveillance has been very poor. So I know that there are many, many samples that have been taken over the last few years, and they've been shared with labs for sequencing. And we need to make sure that countries that have shared samples with labs for sequencing, that they receive those sequencing results back. So we can put the full picture together and we can build a picture month by month, year by year, and then look at the evolution of the virus. But what we're actually seeing at the moment is a little bit like the drunk man looking for his keys under the lamp post. We’re looking where the light is, but we're not looking in the dark. And that's the problem. And that's why we want to see genomic sequencing expanded in Africa, particularly expanding the West Africa and Central Africa. We commend the work of the INRB in Kinshasa, the work of the Nigeria CDC, the Institut Pasteur in Dakar and others."
13. Wide shot, press briefing
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, "“On COVID-19. Globally reported cases have increased nearly 30 percent over the past two weeks. Four out of six of the WHO sub-regions saw cases increase in the last week.”
Speaking to reporters today (6 Jul) in Geneva, Tedros said, “In Europe and America, BA.4 and BA.5 are driving waves. In countries like India a new sub lineage of BA.2.75 has also been detected which we’re following. "
Also speaking at the briefing, WHO’s expert Dr. Mike Ryan said, "So each country has gaps in its readiness, gaps in its preparedness, gaps in its surveillance. No country is without those gaps. Some of those gaps are more extreme, and many of those gaps are because of lack of access and lack of equity, but not all. And each country needs to look at its own national plan. How prepared are you? How well integrated?”
He added, “For example, our diagnostics now and antivirals in the health care system, are they available at the level of primary health care? Is the good triage in the hospital and primary health care management system? Are you continuing to do surveillance? Are you testing enough people? Are you sequencing? Are you sharing those sequences with the international community so we can track the virus? Are you participating in trials, like the solidarity trials to gain more knowledge on your vaccines and antivirals and other drugs?”
Ryan also said, "We will see differential impacts in countries. So depending on how strong that wall of immunity is in your community, depending on how well you deal with the vulnerabilities that people have, and depending on how well you're prepared to deal with that, I think we're going to see further waves of disease, and I think we will see them have a very differential impact between countries. And there is so much that countries can do now in preparation and in readiness.”
On monkeypox, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros said he continued to be concerned by the scale and spread of the virus. He said, “Across the world, there has now been more than 6,000 cases recorded in 58 countries. Testing remains a challenge and it’s highly probable that there are a significant number of cases not being picked up.”
According to the head of the WHO, Europe is the current epicentre of the outbreak, recording more than 80 percent of cases globally. In Africa, cases are appearing in countries not previously affected and record numbers are being recorded in places which have previous experience with monkeypox.
Tedros added, "My teams are following the data closely, I plan to reconvene the Emergency Committee so they are updated on the current epidemiology and evolution of the outbreak, and implementation of counter measures. I will bring them together during the week of 18 July or sooner if needed. WHO is working with countries and vaccine manufacturers to coordinate the sharing of vaccine, which are currently scarce and need to be accessible to the most at risk people. WHO is also working closely with civil society and LGBTQI+ community, especially to break the stigma around the virus and spread information so people can protect themselves."
Also on Monkeypox, WHO’s Mike Ryan said, “I think we can say, with monkeypox surveillance has been very poor. So I know that there are many, many samples that have been taken over the last few years, and they've been shared with labs for sequencing. And we need to make sure that countries that have shared samples with labs for sequencing, that they receive those sequencing results back.”
He added, “So we can put the full picture together and we can build a picture month by month, year by year, and then look at the evolution of the virus. But what we're actually seeing at the moment is a little bit like the drunk man looking for his keys under the lamp post. We’re looking where the light is, but we're not looking in the dark. And that's the problem. And that's why we want to see genomic sequencing expanded in Africa, particularly expanding the West Africa and Central Africa. We commend the work of the INRB in Kinshasa, the work of the Nigeria CDC, the Institut Pasteur in Dakar and others."
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