Media Home
UN Web TV
UN Audiovisual Library
UN PhotoGENEVA / SYRIA POLIO
Download
There is no media available to download.
Share
STORY: GENEVA/SYRIA POLIO
TRT: 1.42
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH/NATS
DATELINE: 25 OCTOBER 2013 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, exterior Palais des Nations
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, UNICEF:
“UNICEF has joined the World Health Organization and other partners in mounting a large scale immunization effort aimed at protecting as many children as possible, both inside Syria and across the region, against polio as well as other vaccine preventable diseases. Inside Syria, a campaign led by the Ministry of Health began yesterday targeting 2.4 million children with vaccines against polio, measles, mumps and rubella.”
3. Cutaway, presser
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, UNICEF:
“Around 500,000 children in Syria have not been vaccinated against polio in the past two years due to insecurity and access constraints. Prior to the conflict, immunization coverage in Syria was about 95 percent.”
5. Cutaway, presser
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Marixie Mercado, Spokesperson, UNICEF:
“The conflict in Syria has caused immense displacement, with millions of children on the move, either inside the country or across borders into neighbouring countries and beyond. As a result, routine immunization systems so critical to preventing childhood diseases have been disrupted or broken down. Children are now at far higher risk of diseases such as polio and measles.”
7. Cutaway, presser
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Tarik Jasarevic, Spokesperson, World Health Organization (WHO):
“There is a cluster of acute flaccid paralysis cases. There are 22 cases being investigated, still suspect cases, and we are waiting for the results from laboratory testing that is being done now.”
9. Cutaway, presser
A large scale vaccination campaign is underway in Syria, led by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), following reports of an outbreak of polio in the country.
A cluster of cases of acute flaccid paralysis was detected earlier this month in Deir Al Zour province. The outbreak is being treated as polio, while laboratory testing is still underway.
Marixie Mercado, spokesperson for UNICEF, said today (25 Oct) in Geneva that inside Syria, a campaign led by the Ministry of Health began yesterday “targeting 2.4 million children with vaccines against polio, measles, mumps and rubella.”
The last reported case of polio in Syria was in 1999.
Since the conflict began, routine immunization programmes to prevent childhood diseases have been disrupted or broken down. UNICEF said that children are now at far higher risk of contracting diseases such as polio and measles.
Mercado said that “around 500,000 children in Syria have not been vaccinated against polio in the past two years due to insecurity and access constraints. Prior to the conflict, immunization coverage in Syria was about 95 percent.”
Tarik Jasarevic, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that there was a cluster of acute flaccid paralysis cases. He added that 22 cases were being investigated, adding that “still suspect cases, and we are waiting for the results from laboratory testing that is being done now.”
