Epidemiological situation

Country profiles

Afghanistan	Bahrain	Djibouti	Egypt	Islamic Republic of Iran	Iraq	Jordan	Kuwait
Lebanon	Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	Morocco	Oman	Pakistan	Palestine	Qatar	Saudi Arabia
Somalia	Sudan	Syrian Arab Republic	Tunisia	United Arab Emirates	Yemen

Somalia

Situation analysis

Malaria transmission ranges from unstable and epidemic in Puntland and Somaliland to moderate in central Somalia to high in the south. It is estimated that approximately 75% of Somalia's people live in areas that support unstable or very low PfPR (0–5%) transmission and less than 0.1% live in areas classified as high, intense transmission (PfPR > 40).

The major malaria vectors are An. arabiensis and An. funestus; while both vectors are found in the south, only An. arabiensis is found in the north.

Priorities for malaria control vary across the country, according to variations in endemicity. In the north, the priorities are to reduce transmission through vector control and to ensure epidemic preparedness; in the more endemic south and central areas, the priorities are to reduce malaria morbidity and to prevent mortality in high-risk groups through early diagnosis and prompt treatment and vector control by LLINs.

The antimalarial drug policy was updated in 2006. During 2008 due to lack of security monitoring drug efficacy interrupted. Funding of malaria control activities is supported by international and donor agencies such as WHO and UNICEF. The main source of funds in recent years is GFATM.  The First phase of R6 is being implemented with $13,096,409 approved funding.

 

Malaria epidemiology

The groups most severely affected are young children, pregnant women and nomadic populations. At a frequency of 95%, P. falciparum is overwhelmingly the predominant parasite species.

Because of very weak health information system and low coverage of public health, the actual burden of malaria is much higher than the number of reported cases. In 2008, total reported cases are 24136 and estimated number of cases is about 0.6 million.

Anti-malarial drug policy