WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing – 3 April 2024

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening,

First to Gaza.

WHO is horrified by the killing of seven humanitarian workers from World Central Kitchen in Gaza on Monday.

The work they were doing was saving lives, providing food to thousands of starving people.

Their cars were clearly marked and should never have been attacked.

Delivering humanitarian aid in Gaza is already difficult and dangerous.

Hungry people will go unfed because World Central Kitchen has quite understandably paused its operations.

I honour our colleagues for their service, and for putting themselves in harm's way to serve others.

WHO has been working with World Central Kitchen in Gaza to deliver food to health workers and patients in hospitals.

This horrific incident highlights the extreme danger under which WHO colleagues and our partners are working - and will continue to work.

But we can only do so with safe access. This means an effective and transparent mechanism for deconfliction must be put in place to ensure humanitarian convoys can move safely.

We need more entry points, including in northern Gaza, cleared roads, and predictable and expedited passage through checkpoints.

Delays and denials of humanitarian missions not only prevent us from reaching those in need, but also impact other operations and deliveries by diverting scarce resources.

In addition to the attack on the World Central Kitchen convoy, we are likewise appalled that Al-Shifa hospital has been put out of action, and that much of it has been badly damaged or destroyed.

Over the last few days, WHO's team in Gaza has been seeking permission to access what is left of the hospital, to speak with staff and to see what can be saved.

But at the moment, the situation looks disastrous.

Al-Shifa was the largest hospital and main referral centre in the Gaza Strip, with 750 beds, 26 operating rooms, 32 intensive care rooms, a dialysis department and a central laboratory.

I repeat: hospitals must be respected and protected; they must not be used as battlefields.

Since the conflict began, WHO has verified 906 attacks on health care in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon, resulting in 736 deaths and 1014 injuries.

Only 10 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are still able to function even partially. WHO will continue to support those hospitals to deliver services as best they can.

More than 33,000 people have now been killed in Gaza, and almost 80,000 injured.

We are seeing a very high burden of respiratory and skin infections and diarrheal illness.

This Sunday marks six months since the conflict began.

WHO welcomes last week's UN Security Council resolution demanding a ceasefire, and we call for its immediate implementation.

Once again, we call for all hostages to be released, and for lasting peace.

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Now to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is experiencing a severe outbreak of mpox.

More than 4500 suspected cases and almost 300 deaths have been reported so far this year - triple the number of cases and deaths reported in the first quarter of last year.

Nineteen of DRC's 26 provinces have reported cases, and 70% of cases and 87% of deaths are in children under 15 years of age.

While mpox is spread among children by close contact, there is also a concerning outbreak among adults due to sexual transmission in previously unaffected areas.

These outbreaks are being caused by clade one of the virus that causes mpox, which has been present in DRC for decades, and can cause higher mortality than the clade two virus that spread globally in 2022.

WHO and our partners, including Africa CDC, are supporting the Ministry of Health to respond to the outbreak and to assess mpox vaccines.

However, additional funding is needed to expand and sustain the response, and ensure the virus does not spread to neighbouring countries.

WHO has called consistently for more attention to better understand and stop mpox transmission in Africa, and to improve clinical care and access to vaccines.

At its meeting last month, WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, SAGE, also issued a call to action to enhance access to mpox vaccines; to improve regulatory and procurement processes; to ensure research is embedded in emergency vaccine deployment; and to invest in research capacity in Africa.

The mpox outbreak is one of several overlapping crises in the DRC.

There are also outbreaks of measles and cholera, severe flooding in more than half of provinces, and since the beginning of this year, more than 350,000 people have been displaced, mostly because of armed conflict.

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Now to the United States, where the US CDC has confirmed one case of H5N1 avian influenza in a person who works at a commercial dairy farm.

The patient did not report any symptoms apart from eye redness, was not hospitalized, and is recovering.

Investigations are continuing into how the person was infected, and WHO is in close contact with the US CDC.

Any case of H5N1 is concerning because it is highly dangerous to humans, although it has never been shown to be easily transmissible between people.

WHO and our partners track influenza viruses globally to monitor the evolution and spread of viruses in both animals and humans.

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Finally, this Sunday marks World Health Day - the 76^th anniversary of the Constitution of the World Health Organization coming into force.

This year's theme for World Health Day is 'My health, my right', reaffirming what WHO has affirmed since its birth on the 7^th of April, 1948: that health is a right for all people, not a luxury.

In fact, the WHO Constitution was the first instrument of international law to affirm that the highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental right of all people, without distinction.

Today, at least 140 countries recognize the right to health in their own constitutions.

And yet, around the world, that right is often unrealised or under threat.

At least 4.5 billion people - more than half of the world's population - are not fully covered by essential health services, and two billion people face financial hardship due to out-of-pocket health spending.

Outbreaks, disasters, conflict and climate change are all causing death and disability, hunger and psychological distress.

Realising the right to health means passing and implementing laws to ensure people can access the health services they need, where and when they need them, without financial hardship.

It means addressing the reasons people get sick and die.

It means safe drinking water, clean air and good nutrition;

It means quality housing and decent working and environmental conditions;

And it means freedom from discrimination.

76 years since our founding, WHO remains totally committed to the highest attainable standard of health, as a fundamental right for all people, everywhere.

This World Health Day, we call on all people to demand your health as your right.

Fadéla, back to you.

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