Thread by @kakape

WHO presser starts with @drtedros talking about Marburg case in Guinea.
"About 150 contacts have been identified and are being followed up, including three family members, and the health worker who have been identified as high risk close contacts”, he says.

@DrTedros "There is no licensed vaccine for Marburg, although there are vaccines under development”, says @drtedros.
“@WHO is working with our partners to seek opportunities to assess them during this outbreak through the R&D Blueprint for Epidemics"

@DrTedros @WHO "Last week, the 200 millionth case of #COVID19 was reported to @WHO just six months after the world passed 100 million reported cases”, says @drtedros.
“And we know that the real number of cases is much higher."

@DrTedros @WHO “At the current trajectory we could pass 300 million reported cases early next year”, says @drtedros.
"But we can change that.
We are all in this together. But the world is not acting like it."

@DrTedros @WHO "In October, WHO reported results of the Solidarity Trial, which tested 4 treatments for #COVID19, involving almost 13,000 patients in 500 hospitals in 30 countries”, says @drtedros.

(I wrote about that here: sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/r…)

@DrTedros @WHO "We expect final results from that trial next month”, says @dtredros.
(This is because the remdesivir arm was continued alone after those first results to gather more data…)

@DrTedros @WHO “Today, we're pleased to announce the next phase in the Solidarity trial, called SolidarityPlus”, says @drtedros.
(Wrote about this new phase of the trial last week: sciencemag.org/news/2021/08/g…)

@DrTedros @WHO In Finland, 14 major hospitals have joined the trial” says @HSarkkinen, Finland’s health minister.
“On sixth of August, two Finnish university hospitals in Tampere and in Helsinki were the first hospitals globally to start to randomize patients to the SolidarityPlus trial”,

@DrTedros @WHO @HSarkkinen “Despite the frightening third wave, which is occurring now, and the lack in so many countries of accurate reporting and enough testing, the pandemic has not impacted Africa in the ways which were expected”, says @ProfessorSow, Mali’s principal investigator of SolidarityPlus.

@DrTedros @WHO @HSarkkinen @ProfessorSow “That is not to say that Africa is still not at risk. It very much is”, says @ProfessorSow.
“We risk losing many hard fought gains of the last decade through the decimation of essential health services and the economic impact."

@DrTedros @WHO @HSarkkinen @ProfessorSow “The first trial was an extraordinary achievement”, says Marco Medina, national principal investigator in Honduras.“Hundreds of investigators around the world were working globally to evaluate an effective treatment for this pandemic of #covid19."

@DrTedros @WHO @HSarkkinen @ProfessorSow Q about Iota variant.
“The prevalence of Iota in the United States, where much of the variant has been detected, is actually decreasing, and the variant delta is actually increasing”, says @mvankerkhove. “So the Delta variant seems to outcompete the Iota variant."

@DrTedros @WHO @HSarkkinen @ProfessorSow @mvankerkhove 52 countries are taking part in SolidarityPlus and half of them have all the regulatory and ethical approvals in place, though more things are needed says Marie-Pierre Preziosi. “We have at least 10 to 15 countries, for which the drugs have been shipped."

@DrTedros @WHO @HSarkkinen @ProfessorSow @mvankerkhove SolidarityPlus includes 16 more countries and nearly 200 more hospitals than original Solidarity trial, notes Ana Maria Henao Restrepo.
“We are hopeful that the recruitment rates will be higher, much higher than in the initial phase"