Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus - The African Mirror

Jun

2021

‘Time has come’ for pandemic treaty as part of bold reforms – WHO’s Tedros

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE head of the World Health Organization (WHO) called on Monday for launching negotiations this year on an international treaty to boost pandemic preparedness, as part of sweeping reforms envisioned by member states. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general, told its annual ministerial assembly that the U.N. agency faced a "serious challenge" to maintain its COVID-19 response at the current level and required sustainable and flexible funding. Earlier in the day - the last of the week-long assembly - health ministers agreed to study recommendations for ambitious reforms made by independent experts to strengthen the capacity of both the…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Findings on DRC sexual abuse probe imminent

NEWS

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY THE World Health Organization, facing pressure from donors, said that an independent investigation into allegations of sexual abuse in the Democratic Republic of Congo against WHO aid workers should issue findings by the end of August. The Thomson Reuters Foundation reported last October that more than 50 women had accused aid workers from the WHO and leading charities of sexual exploitation and abuses during the Ebola outbreak. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told its annual ministerial session on Friday that any abusive behaviour was "totally incompatible with WHO's mission" and he was aware that some states were frustrated…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

World has entered stage of “vaccine apartheid” – WHO head

COVID-19

THE world has reached a situation of "vaccine apartheid", World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday and was no longer just at risk of that status. "The big problem is a lack of sharing. So the solution is more sharing," he told a virtual Paris Peace Forum event. Earlier, he called on COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to make shots available to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility sooner than planned due to a supply shortfall left by Indian export disruptions.

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Donate $7 to save lives – WHO

COVID-19

PEOPLE across the world are being encouraged to donate $7 a dose in a World Health Organization-led push to raise extra funds for the COVAX international COVID-19 vaccine-sharing programme. Launching the "Go Give One" campaign yesterday, the WHO's director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it would allow anyone who wants to "to play their part in vaccinating the world with a simple donation" and, in time, help end the pandemic. The WHO estimates that $7 would cover the cost of buying and delivering a vaccine dose for someone in a low income country. The campaign also will seek matching funds from…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

“Shocking vaccine disparity”

COVID-19

THERE is still a "shocking disparity" in the global distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. Tedros, addressing an event of the Gavi Vaccine Alliance, said that some low and middle-income countries in the COVAX facility still had not received any vaccines, while others had not received their second round allocation. "We need an urgent scale-up in financing COVAX," he said. Felix Tshisekedi, president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and chair of the African Union, said he hoped that people on the African continent would have the same…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Coronavirus pandemic ‘a long way from over’

COVID-19

CONFUSION and complacency in addressing COVID-19 means the pandemic is a long way from over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. So far some 780 million vaccines have been administered globally, but measures including wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing must be applied to reverse the trajectory. "We too want to see societies and economies reopening, and travel and trade resuming," Tedros told a news briefing. "But right now, intensive care units in many countries are overflowing and people are dying – and it's totally…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO chief laments ‘shocking imbalance’ in shot distribution

COVID-19

THERE is a "shocking imbalance" in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide and most countries do not have anywhere near enough shots to cover health workers and others at high-risk, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said yesterday. More than 700 million jabs have been administered worldwide against the disease, but 87% have gone to high income or upper middle-income countries, with low income countries receiving just 0.2%, he said. "On average in high-income countries, almost one in four people has received a COVID-19 vaccine. In low-income countries, it's one in more than 500," Tedros told a briefing. The COVAX facility…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

It’s a ‘travesty’ that some nations are unable to start COVID-19 vaccinations – WHO

COVID-19

IT is a travesty that some countries still have not had enough access to vaccines to begin inoculating health workers and the most vulnerable people against COVID-19, the head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. "Scaling up production and equitable distribution remains the major barrier to ending the acute stage of the COVID-19 pandemic," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference. "It's a travesty that in some countries health workers and those at-risk groups remain completely unvaccinated." The president of Namibia, Hage Geingob, one of several world leaders invited to address the WHO news conference for…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Data withheld from WHO team

COVID-19

STEPHANIE NEBEHAY and JOHN MILLER DATA was withheld from World Health Organization investigators who travelled to China to research the origins of the coronavirus epidemic, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. The United States, the European Union and other Western countries immediately called for China to give "full access" to independent experts to all data about the original outbreak in late 2019. In its final report, written jointly with Chinese scientists, a WHO-led team that spent four weeks in and around Wuhan in January and February said the virus had probably been transmitted from bats to humans through another…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

WHO says COVID-19 origins study not extensive enough, cites data access ‘difficulties’

COVID-19

A World Health Organization team probing the new coronavirus's origins cited problems accessing raw data, the health agency's chief said on Tuesday, calling for further studies because the assessment, so far, has not been extensive enough. "In my discussions with the team, they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said after the report of a team that traveled to Wuhan, China, this year was released. "I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing." Although the team concluded a laboratory leak was the least likely hypothesis for the…