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Health Emergencies Newsletter
Issue No.23: 20.04.2023
TOP STORY
Countries of the World Health Organization have mapped out how negotiations on a global accord on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response will move forward with a view to presenting a draft accord for approval by the World Health Assembly in May 2024.
Discussions on the draft pandemic accord took place during the fifth meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB), which includes WHO’s 194 countries.
Ms Precious Matsoso, Co-Chair of the INB Bureau, from South Africa, said: “Countries from all parts of the world were able to discuss their ideas, concerns and suggestions in a forum for all countries to hear and consider.”
An arrangement between the Pan American Health Organization, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, and United States Department for Health and Human Services seeks to establish a more collaborative approach to strengthening health systems and services across regions.
The COVID-19 pandemic showed that a health emergency affecting one corner of the world can quickly spread to other regions, crippling even the strongest of health systems – exposing vulnerabilities, including social inequality and health inequity, and threatening global health security.
Taken together, PAHO, WHO/Europe and HHS work across more than 85 countries in the Americas and the WHO European Region. The Collaboration Framework Arrangement will enable them to better meet future health challenges and priorities in the years ahead.
In June 2022, the TAG-CO-VAC published an interim statement highlighting that index virus-based vaccines continued to confer high levels of protection against severe disease caused by all SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOCs), including Omicron. However, given the antigenic distance and uncertainties of further viral evolution, the TAG-CO-VAC recognized that it was likely that the effectiveness of vaccines based on the index virus would reduce over time.
On 16-17 March 2023, the TAG-CO-VAC reconvened in Muscat, Oman. The purpose of the meeting was two-fold: to review the evidence on the performance of updated COVID-19 vaccines that incorporate descendent lineages of Omicron as a booster dose; and to establish timelines for COVID-19 vaccine composition recommendations in 2023
General practitioner Dr Sara Biere-Rafi is one of 140 health professionals who works for C-Support, a state-financed organization that provides free information, guidance and advice to patients with Post COVID-19 Condition, also known as long COVID, across the Netherlands.
She and her colleagues in the organization have helped over 23 000 patients since the beginning of the pandemic, and even though cases of COVID-19 are not what they once were, she says there is no sign of waning demand for helping them, with an average of 800 to 1000 long COVID patients a month registering for help.
Monique Post has been living with post COVID-19 Condition (long COVID) for almost 3 years now, having caught COVID-19 in the first wave of the pandemic in March 2020. She was keen to support other patients facing the condition and in May 2022 became a part-time support worker for C-Support, a state-funded organization providing advice and guidance to people with long-term COVID-19 symptoms.
Living in the south of the Netherlands, Monique previously worked as a coach for young people with autism and was used to travelling the world to give lectures while also taking on multiple freelance assignments. But in the first 6 months coping with long COVID symptoms, she found herself having to stop every few metres when walking her dog, finding it necessary to hold onto trees to catch her breath.
Over the last 2 months, medics from more than 20 countries have come together to support those affected by the recent devastating earthquakes, responding to a request for international assistance issued by the Turkish authorities. Working side by side with Turkish Ministry of Health staff and WHO, these remarkable individuals have played a vital role in Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs), saving lives and providing health care to those who survived the quakes.
Kahramanmaraş province – commonly referred to as Maraş – was the epicentre of the first earthquake to hit Türkiye on 6 February 2023. Thousands of people lost their lives, homes were destroyed, and infrastructure, including hospitals and other health facilities, were severely damaged. An estimated 3.3 million people in Türkiye have been displaced because of the disaster, many of them now living in temporary tent settlements while others have moved into container housing.
The disaster has severely disrupted health services, with facilities damaged, the supply of medicines and medical equipment disrupted, and a shortage of health workers occurring at a time of increased demand.
But thanks to the determination and dedication of Turkish Ministry of Health staff, often working outside of their normal official duties, as well as volunteers and foreign humanitarian teams, solutions are being found to overcome some of these challenges.
More than 12 500 people living in Ukraine’s regained territories received medical care from WHO-supported national emergency medical teams (EMTs), data shows. Launched at the beginning of 2022, the EMT project assists civilians affected by the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine. Without it, many of those living within the regained regions would not have access to critical care.
The activity of the EMTs was highlighted at a workshop in Cherkasy to enhance the country’s emergency medical care and disaster medicine system. Representatives from WHO, Ukraine’s Ministry of Health, and the Center for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine at both regional and national levels presented their achievements from 2022 and discussed strategy development and the challenges of running the system during the war..
Development of Ukraine’s public health system and efforts to strengthen the national immunization programme were at the centre of a 3-day WHO-led event in Kyiv that brought together health authorities and experts in public health and immunization from across the country. Together they sought ways to address new public health challenges introduced by the war.
WHO convened the joint retreat along with the Ministry of Health, the Ukrainian Public Health Centre (UPHC), and regional centres for diseases control and prevention (CDCs).
Injuries sustained during a war can lead to devastating and long-lasting physical and psychological complications. To minimize such impact and promote steady recovery, it is important to start rehabilitation care as early as possible. In Ukraine, the need for rehabilitation has arguably never been greater.
People with disabilities face additional challenges during health emergencies such as pandemics, extreme weather events and conflict. Deaf people in Ukraine witnessing the ongoing war are no different. While Ukrainians live with frequent air raid sirens, an estimated 36 000 citizens who cannot hear depend on text alerts. As mobile alerts cannot get through unless networks are stable, too often bombs and missiles come without warning.
The World Federation of the Deaf estimates that by June 2022 over 5000 d/Deaf* people had fled the country. Tetiana Kryvko and her colleagues at the Ukrainian Society of the Deaf are among the many more who have, so far, stayed.
While cases of monkeypox (mpox) have decreased significantly in recent months, it is important to remember that the virus is still circulating at low levels in the WHO European Region. New cases continue to be reported by some Member States and the possibility of further re-introductions from outside the Region, either from endemic areas or newly affected countries, is likely.
This is particularly important as we go into the spring and summer months, when a number of kink and fetish events, as well as numerous Pride festivals, are set to take place across towns and cities throughout Europe. WHO/Europe spoke to The Love Tank, a civil society organization from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is spreading the word to visitors to these events about how to protect their health.
WHO PUBLICATIONS
COVID-19
Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19 - 13 April 2023
WHO policy brief: COVID-19 surveillance, 11 April 2023
Improving access to novel COVID-19 treatments
MPOX (MONKEYPOX)
2022 mpox (Monkeypox) Outbreak: Global Trends
Multi-country outbreak of mpox, External situation report - 13 April 2023
Joint ECDC-WHO Regional Office for Europe Mpox Surveillance Bulletin:- 4 April 2023
WHO Emergency Appeal: Monkeypox - July 2022 - June 2023
TURKIYE & SYRIA EARTHQUAKES
Türkiye earthquake: external situation report no.6: 20 March–2 April 2023
