WHO | Week Ahead for media | 18 March 2022

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Friday 03.18.22 | Issue 148

© WHO / Blink Media - Hannah Reyes Morales

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) updates

A virtual press briefing with simultaneous translation in all UN languages with the participation of the WHO Director-General is expected for next week. Media advisories with Zoom links/dial-in details will be emailed in advance. For the latest news from WHO on COVID-19, Ukraine Emergency and other breaking health stories, read WHO's news updates.

Monday, 21 March

Advance VPC for World Tuberculosis Day (24 March)

Ahead of World TB Day, WHO will hold a virtual press conference on Monday at 15:30 CET featuring a panel of TB experts and release new guidelines on addressing TB in children and adolescents. More below on World TB Day.

Tuesday, 22 March

World Water Day: Groundwater

World Water Day, on 22 March every year, is about focusing attention on the importance of water. This year’s theme ‘groundwater’, draws attention to the hidden water resource that has always been critically important but not fully recognized in sustainable development policymaking.

Under the title ‘Groundwater – Making the invisible visible’, this year’s campaign will explain groundwater’s vital role in water and sanitation systems, agriculture, industry, ecosystems and climate change adaptation. Learn more here.

Wednesday, 23 March

New special supplement on mistreatment of women during childbirth

More and more evidence shows that women across the world face unacceptable mistreatment when giving birth. This includes violations of their rights to privacy, informed consent, and to be accompanied by a trusted companion.

Spotlighting this issue, a collection of studies from WHO and the UN Special Programme HRP will be published in BMJ Global Health, outlining ways to improve facility-based care throughout childbirth.

Amongst other findings, the new collection will present evidence from a WHO multi-country study on the positive impact of labour companions to reduce mistreatment, the need for increased privacy measures and improved ways to measure the experiences and satisfaction women have when giving birth.

More information:

Thursday, 24 March

World Tuberculosis Day

Global efforts to combat tuberculosis (TB) have saved an estimated 66 million lives since the year 2000. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed these gains. For the first time in over a decade, TB deaths increased in 2020. The theme of World TB Day 2022 - ‘Invest to End TB. Save Lives.’ conveys the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB and achieve the commitments to end TB made by global leaders. TB is the second top infectious killer after COVID-19, claiming over 4100 lives each day.

More information on WHO Global TB Day campaign can be found here.

Bonus episode of Global Health Matters

Throughout the first season of Global Health Matters, we’ve covered a range of topics including research during the COVID-19 pandemic, tackling racism within global health, science communication and implementation research. For this bonus episode, host Garry Aslanyan sat down with two of our listeners who shared their reflections on various episodes from Season 1. Listen here.

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