Health

In Afghanistan, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports that aftershocks continue three days after the earthquake which struck Herat Province and affected over 12,000 people. The UN and its partners are on the ground providing emergency food, shelter, health care and household aid.

The General Assembly today committed to tackle several major global health challenges, adopting three declarations that laid out measures to better prepare for and respond to pandemics, give everyone access to health coverage and care for people suffering from tuberculosis.

In Armenia, the UN, led by acting Resident Coordinator Natia Natsvlishvili, is boosting support to national authorities to address the needs of over 100,000 refugees, who recently arrived. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) continues to distribute locally procured core relief items requested by local municipalities.

The UN Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) has launched a joint operation in Djugu Territory, in Ituri Province, with the Congolese Armed Forces against the armed group CODECO in response to recent attacks against civilians and the presence of CODECO members in the area.

Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Mental Health Day, observed on 10 October:

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said today that more than 11,600 children crossed the Central Mediterranean Sea to Italy without a parent or legal guardian. That’s between January and mid-September 2023. This is an increase of 60 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Amid urgent calls for a new and more effective vaccine, Member States at the high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis (TB) approved today a political declaration reaffirming their collective commitment to end by 2030 the infectious disease which — although preventable and curable — claimed the lives of 1.6 million people in 2021.

Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks, as delivered by Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohamed, to the opening segment of the high-level meeting on universal health coverage, in New York today:

Recommitting to universal health coverage, Member States today endorsed a political declaration proclaiming that every human being has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.  The declaration, which has yet to be formally adopted by the General Assembly, comes four years after the adoption in 2019 of the first Declaration on the subject, in which Member States committed to implementing “high-impact” policies to protect people's health.

World leaders adopted a political declaration today calling for stronger international collaboration and coordination at the highest political levels to better prevent, prepare for and respond to pandemics, as the General Assembly held its first ever high-level meeting on the subject.