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Ethiopia

Ethiopia - Situation Report, 15 Oct 2022

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HIGHLIGHTS

Civilians including aid workers continue bearing the brunt of hostilities in Northern Ethiopia; one aid worker killed and another wounded in Shire area, Tigray region.

Close to 40,000 people newly displaced in Aba’la and Berhale woredas in Afar due to the recent wave of hostilities, according to local authorities.

Most of the displaced people in Mersa, mostly from Raya Kobo Woreda in Amhara, have started to return to their hometown.

Cholera outbreak spread from Oromia to neighboring woreda in Somali Region.

Some 22 million people across the country reached with some form of assistance between January and August 2022.

Cholera Outbreak - Bale Zone, Oromia Region

Highlights

Cholera outbreak has been confirmed in 15 kebeles of 3 woredas (districts) in Bale Zone of Oromia. As of 10 October 2022, 191 cholera cases have been reported including 4 deaths.

The Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), the Oromia Regional Health Bureau (ORHB), the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners have been responding since mid-September 2022.

Situation Overview

On 27 August 2022, the first cholera case was reported in Harana Buluk woreda of Bale zone, Southern Oromia region of Ethiopia. On 18 September 2022, Berbere woreda became the second woreda reporting cholera cases, soon after followed by Delo Mena woreda where suspected cases were reported in Burka IDPs site on October 3rd.

To respond to the outbreak, the Ethiopia Public Health Institute (EPHI) and Oromia Region Health Bureau (ORHB), with the technical support of the World Health Organization (WHO), deployed a multidisciplinary rapid response team (RRT) to Harena Buluk woreda on 18 September 2022.

As of 10 October, 191 cholera cases were reported in 3 woredas of Bale zone (Harana Buluk, Berbere and Delo Mena) with 4 associated deaths (Cumulative Case Fatality Rate – CFR - of 2.09 per cent). The use of unsafe water from contaminated water points is the most likely cause of this outbreak. Limited access to water and sanitation (WASH) services, poor hygiene practices, including open defecation and lack of water treatment options are among the factors that have contributed to the rapid spread of the disease across these three woredas.

New suspected cases are reported daily in the three affected woredas. As of the reporting date, there are 15 active cases (3 cases in Delo Mena, 10 in Berbere and 2 in Harana Buluk woredas) in the existing Cholera Treatment Center (CTC), with 71 per cent of the patients experiencing severe dehydration symptoms. Due to people’s mobility, there is a high risk that the outbreak could propagate into bordering zones of Southern and Eastern Oromia, SNNP and Somali regions.

Bale zone remains one of the most drought-affected area with increasing malnutrition cases and report of measles’ outbreak. Since the beginning of 2022, 21 measles outbreak waves have been confirmed in Oromia. In the first week of October, Bale zone registered 219 new meningitis cases (10 per cent of the total meningitis cases reported in Oromia).

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