A very good morning to you all and welcome to this press briefing at the Palais de Nacion hosted by the UN Information Service at Geneva today, the 15th of August.
It's been a very long evening and some of you, I know we're up all night following the plastic pollution treaty.
The agenda is is light, but indeed very important.
We're going to start off right away with our friend from Orcha Yens, who has an announcement for you.
And then we'll move on to WHO Tarek is here with the guest.
We'll speak to the situation on COV cholera, but over to Yens for your announcement first.
Let me start with a very impressive fact.
Did you know that over the past 19 years the UN Emergency fund, you know it as the surf, has channelled over $9 billion to people in need in over 110 countries and territories and that is to provide them with life saving assistance.
In the first half of this year alone, the Central Emergency Response Fund has released $214 million to help people in 24 countries, including in Afghanistan, to get ahead of a drought and to respond to the search of of returnees from Iran and also to black back climate resistance action in eight other countries.
And this has all been made possible by contributions from 143 member States and observers and other donors.
So who's advising on what goes where?
The Surf Advisory Group, the experts who provide policy guidance and advice to the Secretary General on the use and impact of surf money.
And they do that through the emergency relief Coordinator, which is where I come in.
The advisory group has a total of 23 members from all over the world who serve as single three-year term.
And today we announce new appointments of 12 of those advisors for the next three years.
And let me just read out the countries that are, that is, that are represented in this new group because I think it's reflective of the global aspects of the SERF.
So we have Azerbaijan, Canada, Cote d'Ivoire, Denmark, Gambia, Germany, Netherlands, Niger, Norway, Qatar, South Africa and Sweden, so pretty much around the globe.
And on this announcement of these 12 new advisers, I also have a quote thanking the outgoing members and congratulating the new appointees.
The emergency relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher said with humanitarian needs outpacing available resources, SURF is more crucial than ever, A trusted, indispensable tool enabling rabbit effective responses to crisis worldwide.
Thank you very much, Yens, for that.
Do we have questions for Yens on subject in the room online?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So thank you very much, as always, for being here with us.
Yens, we're going to shift now, as mentioned, to cholera.
Yeah, I think Yens will stay.
We have Yens who's here with Miss Alberti, Catherine Alberti, who's a technical officer of The Who cholera team, and they're going to speak to an update on the global cholera situation.
No, no, thank you very much, Rolando.
Let's go straight to to Kate to tell us about the global colour situation.
So good morning, everyone.
The global colour situation continues to deteriorate, driven by conflict and poverty.
This year, more than 390,000 cases and more than 4300 deaths have been reported across 31 countries.
These figures are an underestimate, but they reflect A collective failure.
Cholera is preventable and easily treatable, and yet it continues to claim lives.
We're especially concerned about cholera in Sudan, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Yemen and all these countries conflict is fueling cholera.
One year after the start of the outbreak in Sudan, cholera has reached every state.
This year alone, there have been nearly 50,000 cases and over 1000 deaths reported, with a high case fatality rate of 2.2%, which is well above the 1.1% indicator of adequate access and quality of treatment.
While cases have plateaued or decreased in some areas, including in Khartoum, they're they're rising in Darfur region and also in neighbouring Chad.
In Towila, N Darfur, refugees have quadrupled the population from close to 200,000 to over 800,000.
And this is straining water and sanitation systems.
People have as little as 3 litres of water daily and this is for cooking, washing, cleaning and drinking.
In neighbouring Chad, where the first case was reported just over one month ago, more than 500 cases have been reported and 30 deaths.
This is in both camp camps and the host community.
And this is all in areas bordering Sudan.
And I think it's also interested.
Nearly one third of those deaths have occurred in the community, not in treatment facilities, which indicates that they haven't had access to treatment.
The rainy season has started and it's expected to worsen.
WHO has stepped up its response in the Darfur region and neighbouring Chad, anticipating worsening sanitation and flooded roads, well flooded areas which affect both access for aid workers and critically for supplies.
Working alongside partners, we've established national and sub national task forces, deployed rapid response teams for surveillance and stockpiled essential cholera supplies in the region.
Thanks to joint efforts, there are 17 cholera treatment centres with approximately 700 bed capacity to treat patients and that's in Darfur alone.
We've strengthened surveillance, trained healthcare workers on clinical care, infection prevention, control and other stuff and water hygiene, sanitation.
We're funding water quality testing and are coordinating cross-border public health efforts with Chad.
But violence and bureaucracy are blocking access.
Large parts of their four and court of fund remain inaccessible.
Since January 2025 that will call our vaccine production has hit record highs with an average monthly production of 4.6 million and this is expected to reach an annual average of 6,000,000 monthly by the end of the year.
But this this record production has been outpaced by record demand.
Since January of this year, the International According Group on Vaccine Prevention, otherwise known as the ICG, has received 40 requests from 12 countries and this is triple the number of demands received in the same period last year.
Or already this year, more than 40 million doses of oral cholera vaccine have been allocated, compared to 35,000,000 allocated in all of 2024.
More than 85% of those allocated doses this year are for countries that are facing humanitarian crises, with the largest share going to Sudan.
WHO have reached WHO have been allocated nearly one third of those doses.
But Sudan is not the only country of concern in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Over nearly 45,000 cases and over 1200 deaths have been reported this year, mostly in the conflict affected eastern areas.
In South Sudan, nearly 70,000 cases and over 1100 deaths have been reported.
In Yemen, over 60,000 cases and 150 deaths have been reported.
These figures have two things in common.
1 is that they are too high.
They represent far too many people who've been affected.
And two, they're driven by conflict.
Conflict is forcing people to flee, often into crowded areas where water, sanitation and hygiene facilities are stretched and the overall response is crippled with overextended health, human resources, gaps in data and and serious funding gaps.
WHO urges governments and the international community to mobilise additional funding to support rapid deployment of vaccine and supplies and to strengthen and to ensure safe access for aid workers.
And we're all looking, looking for investment in to strengthen surveillance and case and and clinical care and critically water, hygiene and sanitation.
No one should die because they don't have access to safe water.
Thank you very much, Miss Alberti.
Questions for a colleague from WHO in the room.
If, if I may raise this question to Mr Tarek, because this question is not just related with the cholera outbreak in particular, but more infectious disease the world is facing in general.
So maybe Tarek would be in a better position if I may raise the question.
So yeah, we have learned from the previous briefing about cholera outbreak that as this outbreak is showing as we see more damaging or serious than before, largely caused by the conflicts which is country specific, policy specific, caused by human.
But my question with regards to a more general picture in infectious disease worldwide, is that from W ho perspective, do you reckon A trend that the infectious diseases these days we are facing is infecting us in the pattern not seen before?
And if so, do you reckon this trend, if so, to be largely affected by human factors like the conflicts we are witnessing in the case of cholera?
Or do you reckon, do you, or do you attribute this to environmental causes like the climate change?
Yeah, this is my question.
It's a good question and I think we should really look, you know, disease by disease and then see the see the trends.
But but as as as as Kate said, cholera is the disease that is prevailing where there is no access to clean water.
So it is we often say that the map of cholera in the world is a map of poverty and conflict.
We have been talking to you about chikungunya lately and that's because of mosquitoes coming to places where there were no such mosquitoes before.
So it is linked to to climate change.
There's also more of a human animal interface, more contact between human population.
We are encroaching into, into animal world and there is a, there is a more risk of, of a spillover of zoonotic diseases.
And all of that tells you really that we should be prepared.
And I let me then link to really what was the big, big result of this world, World World Health Assembly and that's adoption of a pandemic treaty because we need really to be ready.
And we have seen during a COVID-19 pandemic that the, the, there is a, a lot to be improved when it comes to coordination of, of detection, preparedness, detection and response to, to, to any, any outbreak of infectious diseases.
So we hope really that with this pandemic treaty, countries will be more prepared and when we face outbreak of infectious disease, we will be able to to better work among ourselves to find solutions, treatment, diagnostics, vaccines and share them in a way that will will benefit everyone.
Thank you very much, Tarek.
Do we have further questions for either Tarek or Miss Alberti Online?
No, I don't see that's the case.
So on that, no, thank you very, very, very much.
I highlight this important scores globally.
OK, colleagues, I just have a couple of announcements.
Of course, you're probably all eager to see any reactions with regard to the plastic pollution treaty.
I could promise you whenever we see something on behalf of the SG, we'll share that with you.
You will have obviously you've been following these talks over the last 10 days and and as as just uttered by the Executive Director of of UNAP, the next step is the committee has agreed that to resume negotiations at the third part of the fifth session, otherwise known as the Inc 5.3 at a future date to be announced.
So certainly our colleagues at UNIP will share information with you once that is clarified.
So you know, this is a state driven process.
So this is, it's been a very, you know, intense 10 days, I would say.
And I would just add, you know, we've heard expressions of disappointment.
But one thing I would like to say from from our perspective is that, you know, I would say the spotlight is perhaps brighter than ever on.
And the scourge is global scourge of plastic pollution, which is really affecting goes across borders, industries, economies, affecting all livelihoods.
So this is a silver lining, if you will.
But these talks will continue.
And of course, our colleagues at UNIP will keep you abreast of all those developments.
Just one other or two another announcements.
In fact, we had a statement that we shared with you late last night, I should say, on Israeli settlements expansion plan.
So this was a note to correspondence that which came through our colleagues in New York, which which speaks to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which of course we've been addressing here for quite some time now.
But this is a statement that came over last night, and I want to make sure you didn't miss that Very briefly, there was another important report.
I know that many of you have already reported on it, but just to make sure you didn't miss out either.
It's a very important report from the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General on sexual Violence in conflict, which came out yesterday, which talks of a staggering 25% increase from the previous year of such horrific acts of torture, terrorism, political repression and how sexual violence is using, as it used as a tactic of war.
So there's a very important report that came out yesterday.
And in terms of meetings, we have the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which is underway.
The Committee will resume its dialogue on the situation of persons with disabilities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, another very important angle to the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which the Committee is looking at.
And last but certainly not least, just a flag that we have a very important event coming up this coming Tuesday, the 19th of August, that is World Humanitarian Day.
We have a Secretary General's message on the occasion, which we shared with you in multiple languages, which speaks to some 300 and 98398 workers having been killed last year alone, which is a record high.
Now the event itself, as you know, the 19th of August, World Humanitarian Day marks the anniversary in 2003.
It was 19th of August 2003 with the attack on our UN offices in Baghdad at the Canal Hotel, where 22 of our colleagues lost their lives.
So hence the significance of that important date, which will commemorate next week.
There is a ceremony outside of Room 20 between rooms 19 and 20 where the council meets the Human Rights Council.
It's a ceremony will be held at 4:00 PM.
So we ask you to be there.
We'll have a long list of speakers.
The Director General of the of the UN office at Geneva will will deliver remarks along with others.
So please be there if you can at 4:00 PM on Tuesday, the 19th.
And that is it from me if you have any questions.
No, I think everyone's very tired, so myself included.
On that note, I wish you a good afternoon and see you here on Tuesday.
