Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoWHO / GLOBAL HEALTH UPDATE
STORY: WHO / GLOBAL HEALTH UPDATE
TRT: 05:03
SOURCE: WHO
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT WHO ON SCREEN
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 04 SEPTEMBER 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Close up, WHO logo
04 SEPTEMBER 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, press room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“On Sunday, WHO and our partners began a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza. Over the first three days, we vaccinated more than 187,000 children up to 10 years old in central Gaza. Families have been eager to participate, telling our vaccination teams about children nearby who also should be vaccinated. Thanks to the community’s active participation, health workers were able to vaccinate more children than expected.”
4. Wide shot, press room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Today we are preparing the logistics, cold chains, teams and communications to begin vaccination in southern Gaza tomorrow. We thank the health workers, UNICEF, UNRWA and the many other partners and countries in the region and beyond who have supported this campaign.”
6. Wide shot, press room
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We acknowledge that the humanitarian pause has been respected to allow the vaccination campaign to be conducted safely and successfully. We ask not only for that to remain the case, but also for a ceasefire.”
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“We expect the first delivery of vaccines to arrive in DRC tomorrow, donated by the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, or HERA. DRC’s Ministry of Health plans to begin deploying the vaccines this weekend.”
9. Wide shot, press room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“WHO is working with our partners to coordinate vaccine demands, share information on doses available, and ensure those doses are directed to areas where they can contribute to controlling the outbreak.”
11. Wide shot, press room
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“I thank the European Union for its donation, and we call on countries with stockpiles of vaccines to work with us and our partners to get those vaccines to where they are needed now.”
13. Wide shot, press room
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“But vaccines alone won’t stop these outbreaks. We’re also working to strengthen surveillance, risk communication, community engagement, clinical and home care, and coordination between partners at every level.”
15. Wide shot, press room
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Today, WHO has published new data on cholera for 2023, showing an increase in both cases and deaths. The number of reported deaths from cholera last year increased by 71 percent compared with 2022, and the number of cases increased by 13 percent.”
17. Wide shot, press room
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Conflict, climate change, unsafe water and sanitation, poverty and displacement all contributed to the rise in cholera outbreaks last year.”
19. Wide shot, press room
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“So far this year, more than 342,000 cases and 2400 deaths have been reported to WHO from all regions.”
21. Wide shot, press room
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“The global cholera crisis has caused a severe shortage of cholera vaccines. Between 2021 and 2023, more doses were requested for outbreak response than the entire previous decade. About 36 million doses were produced last year, only half the amount requested by 14 affected countries.”
23. Wide shot, press room
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Today WHO is publishing a new framework to guide our Member States in the studies that need to be performed to understand the origins of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential.”
25. Wide shot, press room
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“Understanding when, where, how and why outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics start is extremely challenging. But it is both a scientific imperative, to prevent future outbreaks, and a moral imperative for the sake of those who lose their lives to them.”
27. Wide shot, press room
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“However, even with a framework in place, it requires the cooperation, collaboration and transparency of all Member States. We still don’t know how the COVID-19 pandemic began, and unfortunately, the work to understand its origins remains unfinished.”
29. Wide shot, press room
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization (WHO):
“SAGO is now finalizing its independent assessment of how the COVID-19 pandemic began. As I have said many times, including to senior Chinese leaders, China’s cooperation is absolutely critical to that process.”
31. Wide shot, press room
World Health Organization (WHO) chief said, “We are preparing the logistics, cold chains, teams, and communications to begin vaccination in southern Gaza tomorrow.”
Addressing the press today (4 Sep) Dr Tedros said, “On Sunday, WHO and our partners began a polio vaccination campaign in Gaza. Over the first three days, we vaccinated more than 187,000 children up to 10 years old in central Gaza. Families have been eager to participate, telling our vaccination teams about children nearby who also should be vaccinated. Thanks to the community’s active participation, health workers were able to vaccinate more children than expected.”
He added, “Today, we are preparing the logistics, cold chains, teams and communications to begin vaccination in southern Gaza tomorrow. We thank the health workers, UNICEF, UNRWA and the many other partners and countries in the region and beyond who have supported this campaign.”
He stated, “We acknowledge that the humanitarian pause has been respected to allow the vaccination campaign to be conducted safely and successfully. We ask not only for that to remain the case, but also for a ceasefire.”
According to Tedros, the first delivery of mpox vaccines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is expected to arrive tomorrow (5 Sep), “donated by the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, or HERA. DRC’s Ministry of Health plans to begin deploying the vaccines this weekend.”
He added, “WHO is working with our partners to coordinate vaccine demands, share information on doses available, and ensure those doses are directed to areas where they can contribute to controlling the outbreak.
He then thanked the European Union for its donation and called on countries with stockpiles of vaccines to work with WHO and partners to get those vaccines “to where they are needed now.”
He stressed that vaccines alone won’t stop these outbreaks, “We’re also working to strengthen surveillance, risk communication, community engagement, clinical and home care, and coordination between partners at every level.”
He also reported that today, WHO has published new data on cholera for 2023, showing an increase in both cases and deaths.
The number of reported deaths from cholera last year increased by 71 percent compared with 2022, and the number of cases increased by 13 percent.
Tedros said, “Conflict, climate change, unsafe water and sanitation, poverty and displacement all contributed to the rise in cholera outbreaks last year.
He added, “So far this year, more than 342,000 cases and 2400 deaths have been reported to WHO from all regions.
He said, “The global cholera crisis has caused a severe shortage of cholera vaccines. Between 2021 and 2023, more doses were requested for outbreak response than the entire previous decade. About 36 million doses were produced last year, only half the amount requested by 14 affected countries.”
WHO chief also said, “Today WHO is publishing a new framework to guide our Member States in the studies that need to be performed to understand the origins of pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential.”
He highlighted, “Understanding when, where, how and why outbreaks, epidemics and pandemics start is extremely challenging. But it is both a scientific imperative, to prevent future outbreaks, and a moral imperative for the sake of those who lose their lives to them.”
He said, “However, even with a framework in place, it requires the cooperation, collaboration and transparency of all Member States. We still don’t know how the COVID-19 pandemic began, and unfortunately, the work to understand its origins remains unfinished.”
He concluded, “SAGO is now finalizing its independent assessment of how the COVID-19 pandemic began. As I have said many times, including to senior Chinese leaders, China’s cooperation is absolutely critical to that process.”
