WHO warns of urgent PPE shortage amid COVID-19 pandemic

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the "chronic global shortage" of personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers is an urgent threat to efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus emphasized that the lack of PPE puts healthcare professionals at risk, thereby endangering everyone, and stressed the need for international cooperation and solidarity to address the issue.

The WHO has already shipped nearly two million PPE items to 74 countries and is planning to send a similar amount to an additional 60 nations, while also urging G20 countries to utilize their industrial capabilities to boost production and distribution.

Tedros highlighted the importance of learning from this pandemic to ensure that such a crisis does not happen again in the future, noting that viral outbreaks are inevitable but their impact can be managed.

While a safe and effective vaccine is estimated to be 12 to 18 months away, the WHO is initiating 'solidarity trials' in Norway and Spain, involving multiple countries, to test the efficacy of four different drugs or drug combinations for treating existing cases of the virus.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan advised against penalizing countries for high case numbers, suggesting that robust testing should be encouraged and rewarded, as increased detection is partly responsible for the rising figures.

Ryan also stated that predicting the exact duration of the pandemic is not possible.

In an effort to disseminate health information, over 12 million people have subscribed to WHO's English health alerts on WhatsApp, with other language versions being rolled out, and more planned for the future.

The WHO has also reported an increase in cyber-attacks and scams targeting the organization and its chief during this crisis.