Madagascar

This weekly bulletin focuses on selected acute public health emergencies occurring in the WHO African Region. The WHO Health Emergencies Programme is currently monitoring 44 events in the region. This week’s edition covers key new and ongoing events, including:

• Wildlife anthrax in Namibia

• Cholera in Zambia

• Plague in Madagascar

• Dengue fever in Burkina Faso

• Humanitarian crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

• Humanitarian crisis in South Sudan.

Southern Africa – Disaster Response Fact Sheet #10, Fiscal Year (FY) 2017

HIGHLIGHTS

• Vulnerable populations in six Southern African countries will likely require humanitarian assistance through mid-2018

• FAW infestations reported in at least eight Southern Africa countries

• USAID/FFP provides nearly $47 million in additional funding to improve food security throughout the region

KEY DEVELOPMENTS

Points importants

The 2015–2016 El Niño phenomenon resulted in the worst drought in 35 years for much of southern Africa.
In the eight most-affected countries (Angola, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia,
Swaziland and Zimbabwe), an estimated 16.1 million people required assistance between December 2016 and March 2017, including some 5 million children who required urgent humanitarian assistance.

Madagascar: Plague (Epidemic) Emergency Plan of Action (EPoA) (MDRMG013)

Madagascar is experiencing a large outbreak of plague affecting major cities and other non-endemic areas since August 2017. This outbreak caries a moderate risk of spread to neighbouring Indian Ocean islands. This risk has been mitigated by the short incubation period (the time from exposure to onset of symptoms) of pneumonic plague and the institution of exit screening measures at the airport and other major ports. For more information, see the latest situation report available from:

Highlights

• Since August 2017, a total of 449 cases have been reported, the majority pneumonic (322), with 48 deaths: a case fatality rate of 10 per cent (down from 17.7 per cent).

• About 65 per cent of all cases have been recorded in the capital Antananarivo and Toamasina, the two largest cities in the country.

• 33 Districts have been affected, 5 recently.

• In accordance with WHO regulations, no movement restriction measures have been instituted.

The MAHITA ophthalmology unit is dedicated to the children with visual impairment. CBM is supporting the refurbishment of the entire ophthalmology service and provides equipment for the theatre surgery, the patients’ ward, the waiting room, and the outpatient dispensary.

The opening of the MAHITA Pediatric Eye care and Training project

Written by Kristin Myers

Despite global hunger levels falling, one in nine worldwide still face hunger. Here are the ‘ten hungriest’ countries according to the 2017 Global Hunger Index.

1. Situation update

Antananarivo/Nairobi/Geneva, 13 October 2017— The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) is deploying a treatment centre to provide urgent care for hundreds of people in Madagascar who have been infected with plague.

INTRODUCTION

This report is a comprehensive presentation of all data on migration gathered through IOM’s DTM programme for July-August.

People making $1,000 a year or less are most likely to die in disasters, research shows

By Laurie Goering

LONDON, Oct 11 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Fatalities and economic losses from severe weather are rising in many of the world's poorest countries as climate change and a lack of disaster preparedness worsen threats, risk experts said.

Over the last 35 years, 60 percent of weather-related deaths globally were among people who earn $1,000 a year or less, said Ernst Rauch, a strategy expert at German reinsurance firm Munich Re.

Numerous countries in Africa are facing conflict, drought, food shortages and widespread displacement. The UN estimates millions of people are on the verge of starvation in Southern and Eastern Africa.

In September 2017, Australia provided $20 million to support international relief efforts in Somalia and South Sudan. This is in addition to the $19.3 million of humanitarian assistance provided to South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria and Kenya in May 2017.

This brief summarizes FEWS NET’s most forward-looking analysis of projected emergency food assistance needs in FEWS NET coverage countries. The projected size of each country’s acutely food insecure population (IPC Phase 3 and higher) is compared to last year and the recent five-year average and categorized as Higher (p), Similar (u), or Lower (q). Countries where external emergency food assistance needs are anticipated are identified. Projected lean season months highlighted in red indicate either an early start or an extension to the typical lean season.

By A.G. Klei

Analalava is a long way from anywhere else. This remote district of rice paddies and vanilla plantations in northwestern Madagascar is very difficult to access by land, especially during the rainy season.

Scattered among these rainforest-covered hills are over 165,000 people, including a number of women of childbearing age and young children.

Si la peste est endémique à Madagascar, l’épidémie qui sévit depuis août dernier est inquiétante car elle est à la fois précoce et très contagieuse. En cours depuis août 2017, elle a déjà fait 45 victimes. Le Mouvement Croix-Rouge se mobilise aux côtés de la Croix-Rouge malgache.

Antananarivo/Nairobi/Geneva, 10 October 2017— The Malagasy Red Cross is training 1,000 volunteers and staff to serve on the frontline of its growing response to the outbreak of pneumonic plague.

In Madagascar, cases of bubonic plague– spread between animals to humans through flea bites– occur nearly every year. The emergence of the more virulent pneumonic form is concerning and is testing existing preparedness efforts.

Gracias a la financiación de la Comisión Europea, un programa liderado por la FAO ayudará a países de África, el Caribe y el Pacífico a encontrar fuentes alternativas de proteína animal

10 de octubre de 2017, Roma – La FAO presentó hoy una iniciativa destinada a ayudar a los países de África, el Caribe y el Pacífico a frenar la caza de fauna silvestre insostenible, conservar su riqueza natural y fortalecer los medios de subsistencia y la seguridad alimentaria de la población.