No silver bullet to fight the virus and there might never be: WHO chief Tedros
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wears a protective face mask
WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today that there is "no silver bullet at the moment to fight the virus and there might never be".
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"A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection. However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment - and there might never be," Tedros said.
The WHO chief informed that the emergency committee on COVID-19 had met and reviewed the current pandemic. Tedros said that the committee had noted the health impact of the virus had disrupted services on a range of other diseases including reduced immunisation coverage, cancer screening and mental health services.
"More than half of countries reported disruption in antenatal care services and more than a third of countries reported disruption in childbirth services," Tedros said.
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Tedros noted that some countries which had experienced the worst of spikes and appeared to have recovered were now witnessing fresh spikes. Tedros informed that emergency committee acknowledged that member states have "tough choices" to make to turn the epidemic around.
The WHO chief also said that epidemiological studies will begin in Wuhan in China to identify the "potential source of infection" of early COVID-19 cases with evidence and hypotheses generated through the work which will lay the ground for further, longer-term studies.
WHO's advance team that travelled to China has now concluded their mission to lay the groundwork for further joint efforts to identify the virus origins.
Tedros said that WHO andChinese experts have drafted the terms of reference for the studies and programme of work for an international team led by WHO. The international team will include leading scientists and researchers from China and around the world, he informed.
Meamwhile, WHO emergencies head Mike Ryan said that several countries including Brazil and India were braced for a long battle with "sustained commitment".