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STORY: WHO / YELLOW FEVER
TRT: 02:04
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 19 MAY 2016, GENEVA, SWTIZERLAND
FILE - GENEVA, SWTIZERLAND
1. Close up, WHO Flag
19 MAY 2016, GENEVA, SWTIZERLAND
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Bruce Aylward, Executive Director, Outbreaks and Health Emergencies, World Health Organization:
“Urban yellow fever is a particularly dangerous and concerning situation because of both the potential of explosive spread in urban settings with high mortality, and also the risk for international spread as well as national spread from urban centres into areas with high population susceptibility to the disease.”
3. Wide shot, press room
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Bruce Aylward, Executive Director, Outbreaks and Health Emergencies, World Health Organization:
“With 2400 cases, or suspect cases, in just four months, and with the high mortality rate with 300 people dead, reinforced just the potentially explosive nature of this disease and the risk internationally.”
5. Med shot, reporters
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Oyewale Tomori, Chair of the Emergency Committee on Yellow Fever:
“The Director-General of WHO accepted the Committee’s recommendation that the current yellow fever situation is serious - which is the message we are trying to ensure to get to countries - and of grave concern and requires intensified control measures but does not constitute a public health event of international concern. The Director-General also urges members to enforce the yellow fever vaccination requirement for travellers who are going to those countries, mainly Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
7. Med shot, press room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Bruce Aylward, Executive Director, Outbreaks and Health Emergencies, World Health Organization:
“So the bigger challenge is the application, the effective application, of the existing vaccine, rather than a vaccine shortage. And this is really been the situation from the beginning, when you detect local transmission of yellow fever and get on it very quickly with vaccination you can stop the transmission quickly as well.”
9. Wide shot, camerapersons
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the urban yellow fever outbreaks in Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) “a serious public health event which warrants intensified national action and enhanced international support.” WHO urged its members to enforce vaccination requirements for those travelling to the affected countries.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan had convened an emergency committee in response to urban yellow fever outbreaks in Luanda, Angola and Kinshasa, DRC.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva today (19 May), WHO’s Director of Health Emergencies Bruce Aylward said yellow fever is particularly dangerous due to its potential to spread in urban setting “with high mortality” as well as the risk of spreading nationally and internationally. Aylward said the 300 reported deaths and 2400 cases or suspect cases in just four months “reinforced just the potentially explosive nature of this disease and the risk internationally.”
Despite the serious nature of the outbreaks, WHO said they did not “constitute a public health emergency of international concern.” Aylward said the challenge was the effective application of the existing vaccine, rather than a vaccine shortage. He said transmission could be stopped quickly if vaccination was to take place quickly.
