Medical doctor Tefera Tewodros was among the first refugees to reach safety in East Sudan at the onset of the crisis last November in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. Stunned by the sheer number of people streaming across the border, many sick or wounded, he realized he had to step up and help. He went to offer his support to UNHCR, the Ãå±±½ûµØRefugee Agency and the Sudanese Commission for Refugees (COR) at the Hamdayet transit centre. The very next day he started volunteering at the health clinic, run by the Sudanese Red Crescent Society. Since then, he has been living and working at the health clinic in the border town of Hamdayet in Kassala state, where the majority of the 60,000 refugees fleeing the conflict in Ethiopia have sought safety.
Health
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of children and their families across the globe. is working with experts to promote facts over fear, bringing reliable guidance to parents, caregivers and educators, and partnering with front-line responders to ensure they have the information and resources they need to keep children healthy and learning. UNICEF is working around the clock to provide tips and guidance on everything from , to , to .
2021 has been designated as the International Year of Health and Care Workers (YHCW) in appreciation and gratitude for their unwavering dedication in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. is launching a year-long campaign, under the theme – Protect. Invest. Together. It highlights the urgent need to invest in health workers for shared dividends in health, jobs, economic opportunity and equity. This year, we are calling on your support and action to ensure that our health and care workforces are always supported, protected, motivated and equipped to deliver safe health care.
2020 was the worst year in tourism history with 1 billion fewer international arrivals than in the previous year, due to an unprecedented fall in demand and widespread travel restrictions. A meeting of the Global Tourism Crisis Committee focused on the integration of vaccines into a harmonized approach to safe travel and launching a coordinated effort to boost confidence in the sector.
The Cuban government recently announced that its Soberana II vaccine against COVID-19 will soon enter Phase III trials, bringing the country one important step closer to producing Latin America’s first vaccine against the virus. Far from being an overnight success, Cuba’s ability to develop a vaccine is the result of decades-long investment in its biopharmaceutical industry, which in its early stages of development was supported by . Cuba hopes to inoculate its entire population against COVID-19 with a home-grown vaccine this year. The country has four potential vaccines in development. If it clears the final clinical hurdle, the Cuban vaccine will be the first to be developed in Latin America.
5 February 2021 - The joint UN-led COVAX initiative aims to start shipping about 90 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Africa in February, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday. The immunization roll out will be the continent’s largest ever mass vaccination campaign.
Find out how nuclear science plays a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, from medical imaging to radiotherapy to radiopharmaceuticals to sterilising medical equipment. Cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide. 10 million people die each year from cancer and the number is growing. More than one third of cancer cases can be prevented. Another third can be cured if detected early and treated properly. The helps countries increase access to life-saving nuclear techniques.
FIFA teams up with to promote the need for fair access to COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and diagnostics, to encourage life-saving measures and to stop the further spread of the virus.
Making vaccines, tests and medicines available can take a long time, even when there’s a health emergency like COVID -19. To ensure rapid access for all, the World Health Organization has developed the Emergency Use Listing - EUL - and this video explains how EUL works.
25 January 2021 - Since September, the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic has deepened, infecting close to 100 million people, costing more than $3 trillion in lost wages and intensifying obstacles for peace and security around the world, the Ãå±±½ûµØpolitical chief told the Security Council.
It was the scenario the public health community had feared for decades. A dangerous virus emerges and spreads rapidly around the world. COVID-19 infects people when they come together but coming together is also how we will beat it. 2020 saw the world unite against the virus, from small personal gestures to protect others, to international collaboration on research and innovation. The year ends with COVID-19 vaccines rolling out – an extraordinary feat. Science, solutions and solidarity have been ’s tools for addressing the biggest health threat of the past century.
reports on the challenges faced by sex workers in Bangladesh and Myanmar as a result of the COVID-19 closure of brothels. Street-based sex work increases the risk of violence, condom-less sex and no pay or low pay. Sex workers are also experiencing increasing vulnerability to gender-based violence. Without a source of income, conflicts about finances arise resulting in abuse at the hands of spouses, partners and brothel owners. Other challenges include homelessness, stigma and discrimination from other forms of employment and restricted health services and screenings.
Check out this animation and see how location, proximity and time can help you make safer choices when you're in an area of widespread COVID-19 transmission. Visit for more information.
The effort to establish the stockpile was led by the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision, which includes the World Health Organization (), , the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), with financial support from Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. The stockpile will allow countries, with the support of humanitarian organizations, to contain future Ebola epidemics by ensuring timely access to vaccines for populations at risk during outbreaks. UNICEF manages the stockpile on behalf of the ICG.
When COVID-19 hit Burundi, and partners set to work on a massive communication campaign promoting handwashing with soap to stop the transmission of the virus. Immediately, a serious issue needed to be addressed: how can Burundians practice hand hygiene when many cannot afford buying soap? To help solve this problem, UNICEF approached SAVONOR, the biggest industrial soap producing company in Burundi, and reached an agreement: SAVONOR would reduce its own profit margin in soap production, and UNICEF would further subsidize the production – effectively cutting the price of soap in half. SAVONOR would also use its distribution system to make the soap available all over the country. The soap, called Bururu in the local language Kirundi, is like any other soap SAVONOR manufactures. The only differences are its blue color and the recommended retail price (150 BIF or US$0.08) engraved on each bar.