Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends,
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to all Member States, and thank you all for joining us once again.
First to Uganda, where WHO had been supporting the government to respond to an outbreak of Ebola disease that was declared 37 days ago.
We are concerned by rising cases in new geographical areas, including urban centres like Kampala.
So far, there are 109 confirmed cases and 31 confirmed deaths, with an additional 20 deaths that were likely caused by Ebola.
34 people have recovered.
Of these, 15 infections occurred among health care workers, 4 of whom have died.
This is a stark reminder that infection prevention and control in health care facilities is critical.
That means that training, protective equipment, and water, sanitation and hygiene facilities need to be in place in health facilities before crises hit.
Health facilities must be places of cure, not where infection is spread.
WHO and partners are supporting the scale up of contact tracing, delivering early care and community engagement, which is critical for timely care and treatment, contact tracing, safe burials, and in the vaccine trials recently announced by the Uganda Ministry of Health.
WHO is ready to deploy more experts to Uganda, both to help contain the outbreak and to prevent it from spreading in more regions and countries.
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Now to cholera.
Around the world, 29 countries have reported outbreaks this year, including 13 countries that did not have outbreaks last year.
Last week, we announced a temporary suspension of the two-dose strategy for cholera vaccines, due to the limited global supply and the overwhelming demand, which is still increasing.
29 countries with cholera, in 2022. We should not be in this situation in the first place.
This is a disease that can kill within a day. But it is also easily treatable. Rapid access to treatment is critical.
And we know that even better than curing a disease is stopping it from occurring in the first place.
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends, cholera is an old-time killer, but it is also one we can put an end to. Remember, it was not so very long ago that it was found in big cities throughout the world.
We know how to stop cholera before it starts: with safe water, and well-maintained sanitation and hygiene.
Cholera is a perfect example of why we must go beyond the health sector to address the root causes of disease.
In 2022, nobody should die from cholera.
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Moving to monkeypox.
More than 76 000 cases in 109 countries have now been reported to WHO, with 36 deaths.
We continue to work with countries around the world to get vital information to those most at-risk, along with increasing surveillance, testing and diagnostic capacities, supporting immunization and medical care.
On the monkeypox situation, the good news is that it is globally on the decline, but we still should not give room to complacency.
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We are turning a corner on the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is not over. More than two million, six hundred thousand new cases were reported in the last week, with 8 562 new deaths.
The end of this pandemic is in sight, but inequity continues to hobble our response.
Nearly one-third of the world's population has not yet received a single dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including over half of health workers and about two-thirds of older people in low-income countries.
This vaccination gap imperils the global recovery and puts us all at risk.
The danger of new, more dangerous variants that can evade our vaccines is real.
We must not become complacent.
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Of course, the world has long faced pandemics, and none more deadly in modern times than influenza.
Which is why we joined together as a global community to put in place detection and response measures to keep us all safer. This is global, scientific solidarity in action, and it works.
Today we will be hearing from Dr Wenqing Zhang and Dr Joshua Mott on our preparedness work for the upcoming influenza season, along with an update on the expansion of the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, GISRS.
With social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza circulation dropped significantly. But during the second half of 2021, influenza epidemics have resurfaced.
And in fact, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, zoonotic influenza outbreaks were detected.
Fortunately, all of them were sporadic infections and none had sustained human-to-human transmission.
So far, we have been lucky. But another influenza pandemic is a near certainty - the only question is when.
That is why global preparedness efforts for an influenza pandemic must never slow down.
Our pandemic influenza infrastructure has also played an important role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, through bolstering laboratory diagnostic capacity in countries, and using our global mechanisms to support the development of vaccines for COVID-19.
Let me list a few other highlights:
115 countries integrated COVID-19 surveillance into their influenza sentinel systems;
more than 90% of national influenza centres served as COVID-19 reference labs;
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and 177 countries developed COVID-19 plans based on approaches used in influenza plans.
More than 72 low- and lower-middle income countries strengthened their influenza preparedness systems thanks to PIP, The Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework partnership.
The process is now ongoing to integrate other respiratory viruses into the influenza surveillance system - a GISRS Plus - which would both reduce costs and improve efficiency in detecting, monitoring and responding to potential global threats.
Excellencies, dear colleagues and friends, the influenza season will soon arrive in the Northern Hemisphere.
WHO urges those at higher risk to get their influenza vaccinations, including healthcare workers, older adults, pregnant women, those who have underlying medical conditions, and children.
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I would like to close with a special word of thanks to President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre of Norway for their leadership of the ACT-A Facilitation Council these past two years.
The Council will go on standby after its 12th meeting this Friday - tomorrow - to consider the ACT-A Transition Plan and the Council's External Evaluation. All Member States are invited to join.
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As always, we are grateful for your engagement with today's presentations, and we look forward to your questions, comments and guidance.
I thank you.
