Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Barely 24 hours after US President, Donald Trump, announced a cut in financial contributions to the World Health Organization (WHO), WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said they would continue to work assiduously to deliver uninterrupted services to the world.
Tedros in a statement on Wednesday, said they had begun a review of their interventions and would work with other partners to fill financial gaps created by US funding cut to ensure uninterrupted activities.
He said: “Our commitment to public health, science and service to the world remains absolute. We will work with all nations equally, irrespective of size of their populations or economies. Evidently, COVID-19 does not discriminate between the rich, poor, large or small nations, neither does it discriminate between nationalities, ethnicities or ideologies.”
Meanwhile, he disclosed that three COVID-19 vaccines have already started clinical trials while more than 70 others are in developmental stages, in addition efforts with partners to accelerate the development, production and distribution of vaccines.
He said that more than 90 countries had joined or had expressed interest in joining the solidarity trial, and more than 900 patients had now been enrolled, to evaluate the safety and efficacy of four drugs and drug combinations.
He said: “In addition to the solidarity trial, WHO has convened groups of clinicians to look at the impact of corticosteroids and other anti-inflammatory drugs on treatment outcomes. Specifically, we are looking at oxygen use and ventilation strategies in patients. Any intervention that reduces the need for ventilation and improves outcome for critically ill patients is important especially in low-resource settings, to save lives.
“We would continue to study the virus closely. We are also learning from countries about what works and share same information with the world. Everyday, we bring together thousands of clinicians, epidemiologists, educators, researchers, laboratory technicians, infection prevention specialists and others to exchange knowledge on COVID-19.”