Warning that the international community must not let its current battle against COVID-19 cost its war against HIV/AIDS, world leaders detailed national efforts to tackle the threat to public health posed by one virus despite the shocks reverberating from the other, as the General Assembly continued its high‑level meeting on HIV/AIDS today.
Countries must embrace hard lessons learned over four decades of the HIV epidemic — including the need for human rights-based action focused on populations most at risk — as they confront the “colliding pandemics” of COVID-19 and its fallout, which threaten to derail crucial public health gains, ministers stressed during the second day of the high-level General Assembly meeting on HIV/AIDS.
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message to the Global Fund’s twentieth anniversary today:
World leaders in the General Assembly today committed to “urgent and transformative action” to end the gender inequalities, restrictive laws and multiple forms of discrimination that perpetuate the global AIDS epidemic, adopting a lengthy Political Declaration that spells out measures to stop the disease in its tracks by 2030.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message for World Bicycle Day, observed today:
The Federal Government of Somalia, in consultation with the United Nations, declared a drought on 25 April, with moderate to severe drought conditions impacting 80 per cent of the country. Seasonal rains then began in late April and early May, triggering flash flooding that impacted 400,000 people, of whom 101,300 were displaced.
Following is UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ message on World Digestive Health Day, observed on 29 May:
Following are UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ remarks to the event “Convening Business Leaders for Vaccine Equity”, led by the Ikea Foundation, Purpose and the United Nations, delivered virtually today:
United Nations staff in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are closely monitoring developments in Goma, where state authorities decided on 26 May to evacuate 10 districts on the heels of the Nyiragongo Volcano eruption. Tens of thousands are leaving the area amid an already challenging humanitarian situation.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo near Gomas has caused 13 deaths and destroyed the homes of 5,000 people, humanitarian colleagues report. The United Nations is assisting with water, shelter, health and family reunification, and peacekeepers are set to clear the main roads into Goma.
