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STORY: GENEVA / YEMEN HUMANITARIAN
TRT: 01:58
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 03 AUGUST 2018, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
03 AUGUST 2018, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations exterior
2. Wide shot, press room
3. Close up, journalist typing
4. Med shot, podium with speakers
5. Close up, journalist
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We’re particularly saddened as WHO by the attack on one of the major hospitals in the country yesterday, Al Thawra in Al Hudaydah. As of late yesterday, the initial estimates of the deaths were 14 deaths and 13 injuries.”
7. Close up shot, journalist using smartphone
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We have requested, as the UN, three days of tranquillity, associated with, first, our cholera vaccine campaign across August 4, 5 and 6 in the north of the country. You will recall that we were able to start OCV (oral vaccine campaign) campaigns in the south of the country previously, but we’ve never before been able to do it in the north.”
9. Med shot, journalist typing
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Jens Laerke, Spokesperson, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
“Every day this week, we have seen new cholera cases in Hudaydah and now this. The impact of the strikes is appalling. Everything that we are trying to do to stem the world’s worst cholera epidemic is at risk.”
11. Close up, journalist
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We’ve had two major waves of cholera epidemics in recent years, and unfortunately the trend data that we’ve seen in the last days to weeks suggest that we may be on the cusp of the third major wave of cholera epidemics in Yemen.”
13. Med shot, journalists
14. Wide shot, podium with speakers
15. Close up, journalist
A top UN official warned that an attack on one of the last functioning hospitals in Yemen in the key port city of Hudaydah has put hundreds of thousands of people at risk and damaged efforts to prevent a third cholera epidemic in the war-torn country.
Dr Peter Salama, Deputy Director General of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the World Health Organization (WHO) told reporters in Geneva today (03 Aug) that initial estimates indicate the attack on Al Thawra in Al Hudaydah left 14 dead and 13 injured. He said WHO was “particularly saddened by the attack on one of the major hospitals in the country.”
UN humanitarian office (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke said, “Every day this week, we have seen new cholera cases in Hudaydah and now this.” He added, “The impact of the strikes is appalling; everything that we are trying to do to stem the world’s worst cholera epidemic is at risk.”
In a bid to prevent another mass cholera outbreak, Salama explained that combatants have been asked to stop fighting so that an oral vaccine campaign (OCV) can take place. More than 500,000 people are expected to receive the vaccine in a three-day operation beginning on Saturday.
SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Salama, Deputy Director General of Emergency Preparedness and Response, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We have requested, as the UN, three days of tranquillity, associated with, first, our cholera vaccine campaign across August 4, 5 and 6 in the north of the country. You will recall that we were able to start OCV (oral vaccine campaign) campaigns in the south of the country previously, but we’ve never before been able to do it in the north.”
Salama said the level of infection this year is not at the same massive level as last year, however many people are far weaker and far less able to cope with infection. He said, “We’ve had two major waves of cholera epidemics in recent years, and unfortunately the trend data that we’ve seen in the last days to weeks suggest that we may be on the cusp of the third major wave of cholera epidemics in Yemen.”
The UN considers Yemen the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. Twenty-two million people, 75 percent of the population, require some form of humanitarian assistance and protection. Over 28,000 Yemenis have been either killed or injured since 2015.
