GENEVA / MALI CHOLERA

UNICEF warned today that the arrival of this year's rains could bring another cholera outbreak in Mali with devastating consequences for thousands of acutely malnourished children. CH UNTV / FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:01:58
• Production Date: 22 May 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS CHILDREN'S FUND - UNICEF
• Subject Topical: HEALTH; NUTRITION; HEALTH SERVICES; DISEASE PREVENTION; DISEASE CONTROL
• Geographic Subject: MALI
• MAMS Id: U120522d

Description

STORY: GENEVA / MALI CHOLERA
TRT: 1:58
SOURCE: CH UNTV / UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 22 MAY 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE

Shotlist

FILE – 2011, PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations

22 MAY 2012, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

2. Wide shot, journalists at press briefing
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, UNICEF:
"UNICEF is warning that the instability in Mali is raising health risks for children. More than half of health facilities have been vandalised and only about a quarter of health professionals are able to come to work and water supplies are also being hit by lack of fuel. The major risks include increases in vaccine preventable diseases such as measles and polio, unsafe births and with the impending rainy season, an increase in the number of cholera cases."
4. Cutaway, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, UNICEF:
"UNICEF has delivered emergency health, water and sanitation to partners in the north. Immediate priorities now are to preposition more supplies, increase chlorine levels in water, raise prevention awareness levels within communities. It is also important to underline that this is happening within the context of an acute malnutrition crisis in Mali and across the region. In Mali alone, you have 560,000 acutely malnourished children including 175,000 children who need specialised care this year. These numbers could well increase as well."
6. Wide shot, journalists

FILE – UNICEF - MARCH 2012, TAKO VILLAGE, DJENNÉ PROVINCE, MALI

7. Wide shot, mothers walking to health post
8. Various shots, mothers with babies waiting at health post
9. Close up, baby is fed Plumpy’Nut
10. Med shot, nurse feeds baby Plumpy’Nut
11. Close up, baby is fed Plumpy’Nut
12. Close up, Plumpy’Nut in box
13. Wide shot, nurse giving mother Plumpy’Nut for child

FILE – UNICEF - MARCH 2012, MOPTI, MALI

14. Med shot, workers offloading Plumpy’Nut
15. Close up, workers offloading Plumpy’Nut
16. Wide shot, UNICEF overseeing Plumpy’Nut stocks

Storyline

UNICEF warned today that the arrival of this year's rains could bring another cholera outbreak in Mali with devastating consequences for thousands of acutely malnourished children.

The instability in the country is increasing health risks for children, the spokesperson for the UN children's agency told journalists in Geneva today (22 May) and she appealed for urgent funding to meet the risk.

In 2011, the region was hit by one of the largest cholera epidemics in recent years and UNICEF are already delivering emergency aid to the north of the country, where the impact of the conflict is most acutely felt, to try to prevent an outbreak this year on a similar scale.

Marixie Mercado emphasized that vulnerability to the disease is heightened due to the large numbers of children who are already suffering from malnutrition - in Mali alone, she said, there are already "560,000 acutely malnourished children, including 175,000 children who need specialized care."

UNICEF's appeal for $33 million to deal with the crisis is only half-funded, she added, and the organization will need an extra $4 million this year to deal with cholera.

Mali is among several countries in the West African part of the Sahel region, which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea, that are suffering from a food crisis resulting from prolonged drought.