Attachments
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- Decentralized laboratory infrastructure aids in management of the Cholera outbreak.
- Health Cluster partners reach 260K individuals with health care services, during the month of June.
- The Health Cluster team facilitated an allocation of $5.2million for health, as part of the first Somalia Humanitarian Fund Standard allocation for 2024
- Inter-cluster Coordination Group visit to Luglow and Kismayo offers on the job support to the cholera outbreak in the areaa.
- Health Cluster partners intensified efforts to respond to the Cholera outbreak in various state.
Situation Overview and Humanitarian Needs
During the last week of June, a total of 3,594 suspected epidemic alerts were reported from 372 health facilities in theDistrictHealth Information System(DHIS2).According to the week 26 issue of the DHIS2 bulletin, the highest number of diseases reported include 377 suspected cases of AWD/ cholera, measles (212) and diphtheria at 18 cases. Other diseases reported included Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), Meningitis, whooping cough, typhoid, Influenza like Illness (ILI), acute jaundice and bloody diarrhea. During the same period, both national and state public health laboratories confirmed 137 alerts of which 4 AWD/ cholera cases were positive, 5 diphtheria cases, 3 cases of influenza and 125 malaria cases were confirmed with Rapid Diagnostic Tests (RDT) and microscopy. Most of the specimens underwent testing at the laboratories located in Puntland, Hirshabelle, Banadir Regional, Southwest, and Jubaland State within Somalia. Currently, there are four active outbreaks in the country, to include AWD/cholera, measles, dengue fever and diphtheria.
Ontheotherhand,accordingtoOCHA,displacementremains widespread, with millions of people forced to abandon their homes and live in dire conditions in displacement sites. Furthermore, more than 3.8 million people are displaced with many more displaced than once. Women and children make up more than 80 per cent of displaced people and face significant protection risks, which are heightened by pre-existing inequities. Meanwhile, a large part of those displaced in Dhobley and Afmadow have returned to their homes following a dry spell. Additionally high levels of acute malnutrition persist in many areas, with an estimated 1.7 million children aged 6 to 59 months facing acute malnutrition between January and December 2024, of whom 430,000 are likely to be severely malnourished.
Access to healthcare continues to be a challenge with inadequate functional health facilities, which among other health risks, heightens the risk of maternal and infant mortality, increases rates of preventable diseases like cholera.