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STORY: GENEVA/ SYRIA UNICEF WHO
TRT: 2:50
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 9 JUNE 2017 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Boulierac, Spokesperson, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“UNICEF has received alarming reports that at least 25 children have been killed and scores injured in the latest violence in Ar-Raqqa city. Hospitals and schools have reportedly come under attack. Those attempting to flee are at the danger of getting killed or injured.”
4. Close up, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Boulierac, Spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“The fighting has resulted in massive displacement in and around the city, with some 80,000 children from Ar-Raqqa city now internally displaced and living in temporary shelters and camps.”
6. Close up, hands typing
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Christophe Boulierac, Spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF):
“We are tracking water to 120,000 internally displaced people daily, we keep immunizing children, we are distributing school bags, we are providing emergency psycho-social support.”
8. Wide shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Oliver Rosenbauer, Polio Technical officer, World Health Organisation (WHO):
“We have an outbreak, it is not a wild polio virus outbreak, it is a vaccine derived one, but it is a strain that is capable of paralysing children. We know that, so such vaccine-derived strains tend to be less dangerous than wild poliovirus strains, they tend to cause less cases, they tend not to travel so easily geographically. That is the silver lining and should play in our favour operationally, nevertheless two children have been paralysed and an outbreak response is necessary.”
10. Close up, journalist
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Oliver Rosenbauer, Polio Technical Officer at World Health Organisation (WHO):
“This virus strain has been detected in two children with paralyses, and it is also been detected in a healthy community contact, so another child who doesn’t have had the symptoms. That strongly suggests that this strain is circulating in the area. The area is in Deir-ez-Zor governorate.”
12. Med shot, journalist
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“We have increasing reports of people facing deteriorating humanitarian, health, living and security conditions and there are particular concerns over reports of increased shortages of essential commodities such as food, medicine and fuel.”
14. Close up, journalist
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Humanitarian partners have developed and are regularly updating a plan for Ar-Raqqa governorate which outlines preparedness and response to meet the needs of an estimated 440,000 people across the governorate who may be affected by this offensive.”
16. Various shots, press conference
Violence and heavy fighting in the Syrian city of Ar-Raqqa, 160 kilometres east of Aleppo, is threatening the lives of more than 40,000 children who remain trapped in extremely dangerous conditions, UNICEF informed today (9 Jun).
Its spokesperson Christophe Boulierac told media representatives in Geneva “UNICEF has received alarming reports that at least 25 children have been killed and scores injured in the latest violence in Ar-Raqqa city. Hospitals and schools have reportedly come under attack. Those attempting to flee are at the danger of getting killed or injured.”
The UNICEF’s spokesperson added “the fighting has resulted in massive displacement in and around the city, with some 80,000 children from Ar-Raqqa city now internally displaced and living in temporary shelters and camps.”
UNICEF is responding to the immediate needs of children and families who have fled the violence. Boulierac said “we are tracking water to 120,000 internally displaced people daily, we keep immunizing children, we are distributing school bags, we are providing emergency psycho-social support.”
Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said “we have increasing reports of people facing deteriorating humanitarian, health, living and security conditions and there are particular concerns over reports of increased shortages of essential commodities such as food, medicine and fuel.”
According to Laerke, “humanitarian partners have developed and are regularly updating a plan for Ar-Raqqa governorate which outlines preparedness and response to meet the needs of an estimated 440,000 people across the governorate who may be affected by this offensive.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) also confirmed an outbreak of vaccine-related polio cases in war-torn Syria. It is the first re-emergence of the virus in Syria since 2014.
Oliver Rosenbauer, Polio Technical officer at WHO said “we have an outbreak, it is not a wild polio virus outbreak, it is a vaccine derived one, but it is a strain that is capable of paralysing children.”
He added, “we know that so such vaccine-derived strains tend to be less dangerous than wild polio virus strains, they tend to cause less cases, they tend not to travel so easily geographically. That is the silver lining and should play in our favour operationally, nevertheless two children have been paralysed and an outbreak response is necessary.”
Polio is a crippling and potentially deadly infectious disease, caused by the polio virus. It invades the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours, and spreads rapidly among children. The polio virus usually enters the environment in the feces of someone who is infected. In areas with poor sanitation, the virus easily spreads from feces into the water supply, or, by touch, into food.
WHO’s Rosenbauer explained “this virus strain has been detected in two children with paralysis, and it also been detected in a healthy community contact, so another child who doesn’t have had the symptoms. That strongly suggests that this strain is circulating in the area. The area is in Deir-ez-Zor governorate.”
It was also in Deir-ez-Zor where in 2013-2014 a wild poliovirus type occurred which was extinguished. The majority of Deir-ez-Zor is controlled by the Islamic State group and getting stool samples from Deir-ez-Zor to laboratories in Damascus and Ankara that can do the testing won’t be easy or quick.
