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STORY: WHO / HEALTH EMERGENCIES PRESSER
TRT: 09:17
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 21 MARCH 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, WHO building
2. Close up, emblem, WHO HQ
21 MARCH 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
3. Wide shot, briefing room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“As we speak, WHO’s Member States are meeting to negotiate a historic, legally-binding agreement to protect future generations from the impacts of pandemics. There is much agreement between Member States on the objectives of the agreement. Now they need to agree on how to achieve those objectives.”
5. Wide shot, presser
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“I urge all Member States to work together on the principles of solidarity and equity to find common ground, compromise and to give all of us an effective agreement, and a safer future.”
7. Wide shot, presser
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Steven Salomon, Principal Legal Officer, WHO:
“Finding common ground is not easy. But those countries working together found common ground in 2003 when they came together to work on the problem of tobacco control and they concluded the framework convention on tobacco control and those countries found common ground in 2005 when they agreed on the International Health Regulations for dealing with health emergencies, so, finding common ground now is doable.”
9. Wide shot, presser
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Steven Salomon, Principal Legal Officer, WHO:
“Key principles have been agreed. Principles involving equity, fairness, solidarity, transparency and accountability and the involvement of civil society, communities, private sector, community groups, like in 2003 and in 2005 will also be important in 2024.”
11. Wide shot, presser
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Steven Salomon, Principal Legal Officer, WHO:
“It’s important to emphasise that this is a country led process and a country established process and a country deciding process.”
13. Wide shot, presser
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michale Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“What we recognise with infectious diseases they don’t know borders, everyone knows there is no way to affect, stop, mitigate or reduce the impact with infectious disease without working together. This treaty is really the promise to that future it’s a promise as Tedros had called it a generational agreement. It's a promise to the next generation. It’s a letter to our children to say, We the countries of the world, we the leaders of the world have come together and we solemnly commit to a process that we will try to do better.”
15. Wide shot, presser
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“On Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership said that Gaza faces imminent famine, because so little food has been allowed in. Up to 16% of children under 5 in northern Gaza are now malnourished, compared with less than 1% before the conflict began. Virtually all households are already skipping meals every day, and adults are reducing their meals so children can eat.”
17. Wide shot, presser
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Children are dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease, and lack of adequate water and sanitation. The future of an entire generation is in serious peril.”
19. Wide shot, presser
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“In particular, malnourished children need ready-to-use therapeutic food that is targeted at their needs. There are some supplies of this type of food in Gaza, but it cannot be distributed safely to where it is needed. Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land-crossings will enable large-scale deliveries to prevent famine.”
21. Wide shot, presser
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO has supported the establishment of a nutrition stabilization center at Kamal Adwan hospital to treat children with severe acute malnutrition with medical complications, who are at the highest risk of imminent death if not treated urgently. We are supporting the establishment of another centre at the International Medical Corps field hospital in Rafah. And we are training health workers on how to recognize and treat malnutrition with complications.”
23. Wide shot, presser
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO and our partners have been conducting high-risk missions to deliver medicines, fuel and food for health workers and their patients, but our requests to deliver supplies are often blocked or refused. Damaged roads and continuous fighting, including in and close to hospitals, mean deliveries are few and slow.”
25. Wide shot, presser
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We are particularly concerned about military operations inside and around Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Accessing Al-Shifa is now impossible, and there are reports of health workers being arrested and detained. A planned mission to Al-Shifa today had to be cancelled due to lack of security.”
27. Wide shot, presser
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Once again, we ask Israel to open more crossings and accelerate the entry and delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid into and within Gaza. Once again, we call for health care to be protected, and not militarized. Once again, we call for the release of hostages. And once again, we call for an immediate ceasefire.”
29. Wide shot, presser
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Now to Haiti, where the security situation in the capital Port-au-Prince continues to worsen. The airport is closed, making it impossible to import essential goods, including medicines. The national port is operational, but accessing it is challenging as the surrounding areas are controlled by gangs.”
31. Wide shot, presser
32. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Less than half of health facilities in Port-au-Prince are functioning at their normal capacity, and there is a pressing need for safe blood products, anaesthetics and other essential medicines.According to the World Food Programme, 1.4 million people are facing emergency levels of hunger and need assistance to survive. The cholera outbreak, which has been declining since the end of last year, could flare up again should the crisis continue.”
33. Wide shot, presser
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We call for safe and unhindered humanitarian access, the safety of health workers and the protection of health facilities. We call on donors to increase financial support for Haiti. And we call on all partners and the public not to forget the people of Haiti.”
35. Wide shot, presser
36. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Jabras Barbarosa, Regional Director for the Americas, WHO:
“We have already daily delivered more than 4 tons of medicines and medical supplies to the hospitals in Port-au-Prince that are still open.”
37. Wide shot, presser
38. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Jabras Barbarosa, Regional Director for the Americas, WHO:
“Providing fuel to the National Ambulance centre.”
39. Wide shot, presser
40. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Jabras Barbarosa, Regional Director for the Americas, WHO:
“We have also provided blood supplies and consumables to the national blood and transfusion centre.”
41. Wide shot, presser
42. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Director (a.i.) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO:
“As you know, we have seen a large number of cases reported from mpox from DRC in 2024 alone there have been more than 3,000 suspected cases and 250 deaths with a crude case fatality of 7.8%.”
43. Wide shot, presser
44. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Director (a.i.) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO:
“We are working with our country officer in DRC our regional office and partners to look at the interventions that can prevent infections but also stop transmission, and one of those interventions is vaccines.”
45. Wide shot, presser
46. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Director (a.i.) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO:
“We are also looking at supply, we are looking at how many doses could be available, then of course, the strategies in which those vaccines can be used in outbreak situation.”
47. Wide shot, presser
48. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, Director (a.i.) Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention, WHO:
“Given limited supply of vaccines, need to use those vaccines in a targeted way.”
49. Wide shot, presser
50. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Michale Ryan, Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, WHO:
“And community action is a very important part of preventing smallpox transmission, it's not just all about bringing in silver bullets Its about investing in communities so they can recognise this disease, about reducing transmission between people by people understanding the disease and diagnosing it and avoiding contact with other humans when they have it and vaccination can play a very important part in that process.”
51. Wide shot, presser
In a press conference today (21 Mar), World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said, “WHO’s Member States are meeting to negotiate a historic, legally binding agreement to protect future generations from the impacts of pandemics. There is much agreement between Member States on the objectives of the agreement. Now they need to agree on how to achieve those objectives.”
He urged all Member States to work together on the principles of solidarity and equity to find common ground, compromise and to give all of us an effective agreement, and a safer future.
Also in the presser, Steven Salomon, WHO’s Principal Legal Officer, said, “Finding common ground is not easy. But those countries working together found common ground in 2003 when they came together to work on the problem of tobacco control and they concluded the framework convention on tobacco control and those countries found common ground in 2005 when they agreed on the International Health Regulations for dealing with health emergencies, so, finding common ground now is doable.”
He added, “Key principles have been agreed. Principles involving equity, fairness, solidarity, transparency and accountability and the involvement of civil society, communities, private sector, community groups, like in 2003 and in 2005 will also be important in 2024.”
Salomon also said, “It’s important to emphasise that this is a country led process and a country established process and a country deciding process.”
For his part, Dr Michale Ryan, WHO’s Executive Director, Health Emergencies Programme, said, “What we recognise with infectious diseases they don’t know borders, everyone knows there is no way to affect, stop, mitigate or reduce the impact with infectious disease without working together. This treaty is really the promise to that future it’s a promise as Tedros had called it a generational agreement. It's a promise to the next generation. It’s a letter to our children to say, We the countries of the world, we the leaders of the world have come together and we solemnly commit to a process that we will try to do better.”
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also said, “On Tuesday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification partnership said that Gaza faces imminent famine, because so little food has been allowed in. Up to 16% of children under 5 in northern Gaza are now malnourished, compared with less than 1% before the conflict began. Virtually all households are already skipping meals every day, and adults are reducing their meals so children can eat.”
Tedros added, “Children are dying from the combined effects of malnutrition and disease, and lack of adequate water and sanitation. The future of an entire generation is in serious peril.”
He continued, “In particular, malnourished children need ready-to-use therapeutic food that is targeted at their needs. There are some supplies of this type of food in Gaza, but it cannot be distributed safely to where it is needed. Recent efforts to deliver food by air and sea are welcome, but only the expansion of land-crossings will enable large-scale deliveries to prevent famine.”
WHO’s Director-General also said, “WHO has supported the establishment of a nutrition stabilization center at Kamal Adwan hospital to treat children with severe acute malnutrition with medical complications, who are at the highest risk of imminent death if not treated urgently. We are supporting the establishment of another centre at the International Medical Corps field hospital in Rafah. And we are training health workers on how to recognize and treat malnutrition with complications.”
Tedros added, “WHO and our partners have been conducting high-risk missions to deliver medicines, fuel and food for health workers and their patients, but our requests to deliver supplies are often blocked or refused. Damaged roads and continuous fighting, including in and close to hospitals, mean deliveries are few and slow.”
He continued, “We are particularly concerned about military operations inside and around Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. Accessing Al-Shifa is now impossible, and there are reports of health workers being arrested and detained. A planned mission to Al-Shifa today had to be cancelled due to lack of security.”
Tedros noted, “Once again, we ask Israel to open more crossings and accelerate the entry and delivery of water, food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid into and within Gaza. Once again, we call for health care to be protected, and not militarized. Once again, we call for the release of hostages. And once again, we call for an immediate ceasefire.”
On Haiti, Tedros said, “the security situation in the capital Port-au-Prince continues to worsen. The airport is closed, making it impossible to import essential goods, including medicines. The national port is operational, but accessing it is challenging as the surrounding areas are controlled by gangs.”
He continued, “Less than half of health facilities in Port-au-Prince are functioning at their normal capacity, and there is a pressing need for safe blood products, anaesthetics and other essential medicines. According to the World Food Programme, 1.4 million people are facing emergency levels of hunger and need assistance to survive. The cholera outbreak, which has been declining since the end of last year, could flare up again should the crisis continue.”
Tedros called for “safe and unhindered humanitarian access, the safety of health workers and the protection of health facilities. We call on donors to increase financial support for Haiti. And we call on all partners and the public not to forget the people of Haiti.”
For his part, WHO’s Regional Director for the Americas Dr Jabras Barbarosa, said, “We have already daily delivered more than 4 tons of medicines and medical supplies to the hospitals in Port-au-Prince that are still open.”
He noted, “Providing fuel to the National Ambulance centre,”adding “We have also provided blood supplies and consumables to the national blood and transfusion centre.”
On the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), WHO’S Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, said, “As you know, we have seen a large number of cases reported from mpox from DRC in 2024 alone there have been more than 3,000 suspected cases and 250 deaths with a crude case fatality of 7.8%.”
She added, “We are working with our country officer in DRC our regional office and partners to look at the interventions that can prevent infections but also stop transmission, and one of those interventions is vaccines.”
She also said, “We are also looking at supply, we are looking at how many doses could be available, then of course, the strategies in which those vaccines can be used in outbreak situation.”
She continued, “Given limited supply of vaccines, need to use those vaccines in a targeted way.”
For his part, WHO’s Dr Michale Ryan, added, “And community action is a very important part of preventing smallpox transmission, it's not just all about bringing in silver bullets Its about investing in communities so they can recognise this disease, about reducing transmission between people by people understanding the disease and diagnosing it and avoiding contact with other humans when they have it and vaccination can play a very important part in that process.”
