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Stories from United Nation sources._
Source:
Department of Public Information
News and Media Division
New York
Secretary-General, making observance of 14 November as World Diabetes Day,
calls for strategies to help victims, especially in developing countries
This is the text of a message by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to mark World Diabetes Day, observed on 14 November:
This year's World Diabetes Day comes at a time of unprecedented international action to confront this and other non-communicable diseases.
Just two months ago, the United Nations General Assembly held its first-ever High-level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-communicable Diseases, producing a strong Political Declaration with time-bound commitments. Among these was a pledge to make it possible for more people to get quality medicines for diagnosing and treating diabetes by the year 2013.
The Political Declaration also called on the private sector to do its part, building on Millennium Development Goal 8, which calls for partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries.
We have seen meaningful progress in this direction. One company has introduced a differential pricing scheme to supply generic insulin to the least developed countries, benefitting three dozen States to date. But this facility cannot respond alone. We must bring in other partners. And we must address inefficient distribution systems and the lack of sufficient public funding for medicines.
World Diabetes Day is an opportunity to raise awareness and to show people living with diabetes that the international community stands with them in their struggle. This is especially important for the 277 million people with diabetes who live in developing countries. Too often, the disease hits the poorest especially hard, leading to heart attacks, strokes, blindness, limb amputations, kidney failure and premature death.
I call on Governments and pharmaceutical companies to give real meaning to our commemorations by developing joint strategies to make essential medicines more available and affordable in developing countries, especially for the poorest people who need them.
Let us all use World Diabetes Day to work so that people with diabetes everywhere get the care and treatment they deserve.
Pacific Rim nations prepare for UN-backed tsunami preparedness test
4 November 2011 - Some 30 Pacific Rim countries are to take part next week in a United Nations-backed tsunami warning exercise to improve their ability to respond to an alert and enhance regional coordination in the event of a disaster. Most tsunamis occur in the Pacific Ocean and connected seas, according to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Three tsunamis have struck that region recently - Samoa in 2009, Chile in 2010 and Japan in 2011.
The test scheduled for 9 and 10 November, known as PacWave11, is organized under the aegis of UNESCO's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission and will be carried out in two phases.
| In its first phase, the exercise will consist of nine different scenarios to allow each participating country to respond to a regional or local source tsunami based on powerful earthquake events generated off the shores of the Philippines, Vanuatu, Tonga, Ecuador, Central America or Japan's Ryukyu Islands.In its first phase, the exercise will consist of nine different scenarios to allow each participating country to respond to a regional or local source tsunami based on powerful earthquake events generated off the shores of the Philippines, Vanuatu, Tonga, Ecuador, Central America or Japan's Ryukyu Islands. |
Countries engaged in the test will choose one of these scenarios and opt for a region or local event to which they would have to react.
In the second phase, which will be carried out simultaneously after receipt of warning messages, the authorities will test all the necessary steps to respond to a warning prior to alerting the public.
Simulated warnings will be sent out to national focal points by the Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Centre (Japan), the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (United States) and the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (US).
The Commission set up the International Coordination Group for the Tsunami Warning System in the Pacific in 1965, following the major tsunami of 1960 that hit the coast of Chile and claimed close to 5,000 lives.
The purpose of the Group is to coordinate the ongoing development and enhancement of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Systems and to promote the establishment of national risk assessments, alert and response programmes.
