WHO / HEALTH EMERGENCIES UPDATE

Top officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) provided updates on hotspots, outbreaks, funding and the way forward, touching on the situations in Gaza and Myanmar; the withdrawal of the United States from WHO; the dangers of measles and the safety of vaccines; and the inherent interest of all countries in cooperating globally on health. WHO
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STORY: WHO / HEALTH EMERGENCIES UPDATE
TRT: 6:28
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 10 APRIL 2025, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

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Shotlist

FILE – GENEVA

1. Wide shot, exterior, WHO Headquarters

10 APRIL 2025, GENEVA

2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“In the past week, 75 per cent of UN missions within Gaza have been denied or impeded. This blockade is leaving families hungry, malnourished, without clean water, shelter, and adequate health care, and increasing the risk of disease and death.”
4. Wide shot, press briefing room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“WHO took advantage of the precious ceasefire to resupply the health system and our warehouses. After six weeks of blockade, those supplies are dangerously low, and will run out in two to four weeks unless the siege is lifted.”
6. Wide shot, press briefing room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“Despite security risks, access restrictions and dwindling supplies, WHO is staying in Gaza, and will continue to deliver supplies, train health workers, support emergency medical teams, medical evacuations, surveillance for epidemics, and primary health care centres.”
8. Wide shot, press briefing room
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“WHO calls for the urgent lifting of the aid blockade, the protection of health care, unimpeded humanitarian access across Gaza, the immediate resumption of daily medical evacuations, the release of hostages still detained in Gaza, and – above all – a ceasefire.”
10. Wide shot, press briefing room
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“Ten days after the earthquakes that hit Myanmar, over 3,600 people have been reported dead, 5,000 are injured, and almost 200 remain missing.”
12. Wide shot, press briefing room
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“With limited access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene, there is an increased risk of disease outbreaks, including cholera, malaria and dengue. Five health facilities have been destroyed and 61 damaged.”
14. Wide shot, press briefing room
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“So far WHO has delivered 140 metric tons of specialist medical supplies, and more is expected to arrive from Dubai today.”
16. Wide shot, press briefing room
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Kalipso Chalkidou, Director, Health Financing and Economics, WHO:
“Some of the poorest nations with the smallest economies, the weakest economies seem to have been the worst hit. So countries such as Lesotho, Madagascar, Cote d'Ivoire, a large chunk of their GDP could be wiped out by the tariffs if they continue, if they if they're sustained. And these are the very countries where external aid, a large chunk of which does come from the United States, is also critical to finance the health care system. So some of these countries, up to 30 or 40 per cent of the total spend on health, comes from aid. And a large proportion of that is US aid.”
18. Wide shot, press briefing room
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Katherine O’Brien, Director, Immunization, vaccines and biologicals, WHO:
“Measles is one of the most infectious viruses, and so measles anywhere is in fact measles everywhere.”
20. Wide shot, press briefing room
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Katherine O’Brien, Director, Immunization, vaccines and biologicals, WHO:
“Also, just a reminder that measles is a deadly virus. I think people forget just how sick and how dead that virus can make you.”
22. Wide shot, press briefing room
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Katherine O’Brien, Director, Immunization, vaccines and biologicals, WHO:
“What is clear is that the US is working to control the outbreak and to shut the outbreak down. It is a multi-state outbreak.”
24. Wide shot, press briefing room
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Katherine O’Brien, Director, Immunization, vaccines and biologicals, WHO:
“The measles vaccine is an incredibly safe vaccine and it's an incredibly effective vaccine. Two doses of measles vaccine confers upwards of 95 per cent efficacy, and a single dose confers over 90 per cent efficacy.”
26. Wide shot, press briefing room
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“At our last media briefing, I spoke about the impact of recent funding cuts on global health.”
28. Wide shot, press briefing room
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“In response, countries are revising budgets, cutting costs and strengthening fundraising and partnerships.”
30. Wide shot, press briefing room
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“WHO has been working with countries for many years to support them in the transition away from aid dependency to sustainable self-reliance, based on domestic resources. We are now supporting countries to accelerate that transition, to avert the health impacts that these sudden and unplanned cuts are having.”
32. Wide shot, press briefing room
33. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“I think today of the people of Myanmar, I think today of the people in Gaza, I think today of people around the world who have lost their HIV therapy or their TB therapy, or children who haven’t been vaccinated, dying of measles. And in the hierarchy of suffering, any suffering at WHO is in the ha'penny space compared to what people around the world are suffering.”
34. Wide shot, press briefing room
35. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“We recognize that we are in a situation where, with the advice on and cooperation with our Member States, we need to contract the amount of money we absorb as an organization in order to do the work we do with our Member States and in the field. And we're doing that, and we're approaching that very, very responsibly in terms of cost containment, resource mobilization, looking at the priorities in the organization that we already set with our Member States for a five- year cycle, which would start in January next year.”
36. Wide shot, press briefing room
37. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“Within all of those deliverables, we are working at all levels to prioritize those deliverables, to work with the member States, to agree what is the adapted work we will do what is essential and must continue, what can be scaled back or postponed, and what can actually stop. And in the end of the day, we have to talk about what we can't do anymore.”
38. Wide shot, press briefing room
39. SOUNDBITE (English) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO:
“I said this many times, that the US withdrawal from WHO, it's a lose/lose. It's in the best interest of the US to stay in WHO. It's the health security that keeps the US safe and the rest of the world safe by being in WHO.”
40. Wide shot, press briefing room
41. SOUNDBITE (English) Michael Ryan, Executive Director, WHO Health Emergencies Programme:
“Clearly, the pandemic agreement is not a panacea. It deals with the future pandemic. It doesn't deal with all of the issues that concern people's health around the world. But there is no question that having a framework for cooperation between sovereign States when it comes to the next pandemic, is the basis for collective action that is needed, that is required, and it will save lives, and it will be an efficient way to deliver.”
42. Wide shot, press briefing room

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Storyline

Top officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) provided updates today (10 Apr) on hotspots, outbreaks, funding and the way forward, touching on the situations in Gaza and Myanmar; the withdrawal of the United States from WHO; the dangers of measles and the safety of vaccines; and the inherent interest of all countries in cooperating globally on health.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said the aid blockade in Gaza leaves families “hungry, malnourished, without clean water, shelter, and adequate health care, and increasing the risk of disease and death.” He said that despite security risks, access restrictions and dwindling supplies, WHO is staying in Gaza, and will continue to deliver to assist those in need. He also called for the urgent lifting of the aid blockade, the protection of health care, unimpeded humanitarian access across Gaza, the immediate resumption of daily medical evacuations, the release of hostages still detained in Gaza, “and – above all – a ceasefire.”

On Myanmar, the WHO Director-General said ten days after the earthquakes there, over 3,600 people have been reported dead, 5,000 are injured, and almost 200 remain missing. So far WHO has delivered 140 metric tons of specialist medical supplies, and more is on the way.

Tedros called the US withdrawal from WHO a “lose/lose,” emphasizing that, “It's in the best interest of the US to stay in WHO. It's the health security that keeps the US safe and the rest of the world safe by being in WHO.”

Speaking on the importance of US aid globally, Kalipso Chalkidou, WHO Director of Health Financing and Economics, said in some countries, up to 30 or 40 per cent of the total spend on health comes from aid. And a large proportion of that is US aid.

Regarding measles, Katherine O’Brien, WHO Director of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, said it is one of the most infectious viruses, adding “measles anywhere is in fact measles everywhere.” Stressing that measles is a deadly virus, she said, “I think people forget just how sick and how dead that virus can make you.” She said two doses of measles vaccine confers upwards of 95 per cent efficacy, and a single dose confers over 90 per cent efficacy.”

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