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Pandemics that weren’t: How to nip an outbreak in the bud

On December 10, 2024, a woman arrived at a health facility in Pariak, a town in the state of Jonglei in South Sudan, with diarrhea, vomiting and symptoms of dehydration. She had recently returned from an area affected by cholera. In one of the most vulnerable countries in the world, where millions of people lack regular access to clean water and health services, this could have been the beginning of a new emergency.

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© Gradel Muyisa Mumbere (REUTERS)

Health personnel equipped with personal protective equipment to respond to the ebola outbreak on May 31 in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Tom Fletcher, UN humanitarian chief: 'Cuts force us to choose which lives to save and which lives not to'

A few months ago, at a center for malnourished children in the remote Darfur region of Sudan, an orphaned baby who had arrived days earlier on the brink of death gripped Tom Fletcher’s finger with surprising strength. The United Nations’ humanitarian chief says those seconds eased his frustration at international inaction and the “anger” he feels over cuts to aid at a time when needs and conflicts are rising around the world.

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Tom Fletcher, head of OCHA, on a Madrid street this Wednesday.

© Álvaro García

Tom Fletcher, U.N. humanitarian chief, in Madrid on Wednesday.
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