Mr Chairman, honourable ministers, distinguished delegates, Dr Alwan, ladies and gentlemen,
This is not an easy time for the world, not for any country in any WHO region. Think about the headlines on nearly any given day.
Conflict. Senseless violence. Natural and man-made disasters. A changing climate. More and more antimicrobials failing.
Continuing sporadic cases in this region of MERS. More and more chronic noncommunicable disease claiming lives way too young. And never far away, the constant threat from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
In just the past few days, the volatile microbial world has delivered some sharp reminders of its power. Egypt confirmed a case of H5N1 avian influenza in an infant. Austria reported its first imported case of the MERS coronavirus.
The US confirmed its first Ebola case in a traveller from Liberia and then another case in a nurse who treated him. Infection in a second health-care worker was confirmed last Wednesday.
Spain likewise confirmed the first instance of Ebola transmission on its soil.
Meanwhile at the end of last month, more than 90 Ugandans, most of them hospital staff, were being monitored, in isolation, following the death on 28 September of a radiology technician from yet another horrific killer: Marburg haemorrhagic fever.
But let me begin with something positive.
Ministries of Health in this Region are fortunate. I am absolutely convinced that your Regional Director is leading you along the right paths.
I mean two paths in particular: the strong and consistent emphasis on strengthening basic health infrastructures, and the need to complete the job of polio eradication.
As the whole world is seeing right now, without fundamental public health infrastructures in place, no society is stable. No population is safe.
No country has the resilience to withstand the multiple shocks our 21st century societies are delivering with increasing frequency and force, whether caused by extreme weather events in a changing climate, armed conflict or civil unrest, or a deadly and dreaded virus spreading out of control.
The Ebola outbreak that is ravaging parts of West Africa is going to get far worse before it gets any better. Health officials are still racing to catch up with this rapidly evolving outbreak that is constantly delivering surprises.
It has multiple dimensions that have never been seen in the 38-year history of this disease.
But let me tell you one positive story among so many heart-breaking ones.
When the Ebola virus was carried into Lagos, Nigeria, on 20 July, health officials all around the world trembled in anticipation of what was almost certain to be the start of the worst nightmare scenario anyone could imagine.
Lagos is Africa’s most populous, fluid, and chaotic city, with a population of 23 million people constantly moving in and out.
Everyone expected a tremendous explosion of cases that would likely prove extremely difficult to control.
That never happened. In fact, tomorrow WHO will declare, with full confidence, that the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria is over. The virus is gone. The outbreak was defeated.
What accounts for this great news?
The polio programme. Nigeria is running one of the world’s most innovative polio eradication campaigns, using the very latest satellite-based cutting-edge technologies to ensure that no child is missed.
The country is on track to eradicate wild poliovirus from its borders before the end of this year.
When the first Ebola case was confirmed in July, health officials immediately repurposed polio technologies and infrastructures to conduct Ebola case-finding and contact-tracing.
This is a good public health story with an unusual twist at the end.
Several wealthy countries have people right now in Nigeria. They are studying technologies, “made in Nigeria” with WHO support, to boost their contact tracing capacities should an imported case occur.
The story has another very clear message.
If Nigeria, also crippled by serious security problems, can do this – that is, eradicate polio and contain Ebola at the same time – any country in the world can do the same.
I am aware that your Regional Director will give you the latest information about the extremely serious polio situation in Pakistan.
For Ebola, the world is indeed admirably vigilant as witnessed by almost daily false alarms at airports and in emergency rooms, also in countries from this region.
But the world has a long way to go on preparedness.
Again, it is the same failure that concerns your Regional Director so deeply.
When presidents and prime ministers in non-affected countries make statements about Ebola, they rightly attribute the outbreak’s unprecedented spread and severity to the “failure to put basic public health infrastructures in place.”
I agree. From my first day in office, I have stressed the critical need to strengthen health systems.
Health systems were neglected for decades and decades. Worldwide, population vulnerability to any kind of acute shock, also from a changing climate, is alarmingly high.
Again, let me say how fortunate health ministers in this Region are.
You have leadership that is taking you down exactly the right paths.
Thank you.