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Emergency Preparedness and Humanitarian action
Current humanitarian situation in 2009
Recurrent conflict and natural disasters in 2009 have brought about new
and pressing health needs for the people of Somalia. At the current
time, there is a population of over 3.6 million of humanitarian concern.
This includes 1.5 million internally displaced people (IDPs) across the
country especially in areas surrounding Mogadishu, which have seen the
worst hostilities. The latest fighting in Mogadishu has resulted in an
additional 500 000 IDPs since May 2009.
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©WHO/Somalia/Omar Saleh
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Overcrowding in IDP settlements,
lack of health services including immunization activities and
functioning disease reporting are increasing public health risks. With a
high annual caseload of acute watery diarrhoea, the new displacement and
the lack of humanitarian access for reporting of diseases, the risk of
cholera outbreaks is high. With Somalia entering its rainy season in
October/November, cholera will become a leading public health concern,
particular for displaced communities but also for the wider population.
Feature: Somalia - Struggling to reach the sick
Current priorities for WHO in Somalia
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©WHO/Somalia
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Health situation of IDPs in South Central: Owing to new
displacement, cholera outbreaks amongst IDP communities are high due to
increased risk of water-borne diseases due to a lack of access to
safe-drinking water and sanitation. The lack of humanitarian access is
compromising regular reporting in addition to high baseline levels of
AWD in Somalia. More pre-positioning of supplies and establishing early
warning disease surveillance in IDP settlements are a key priority to
prevent avoidable death and disability from communicable disease amongst
the most vulnerable groups.
Coordination: WHO is the lead agency for coordination in the health
cluster. Owing to almost the exclusive reliance on NGOs in Somalia for
providing health care and outbreak response, coordination of cluster
partners and information-sharing are of particular importance in the
context of Somalia. Funding has not been available in 2009 for this
crucial function.
Please see
Health Cluster
Support to hospitals: Ongoing assessment missions into Somalia,
with a focus on South Central showed a lack of qualified staff, basic
medicines, supplies and equipment with some hospitals in urgent need of
functional rehabilitation.
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©WHO/Somalia
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Child Health Days (CHDs): The lack of routine immunization
services demand that child health services are conducted mainly
through outreach activities and often the only contact with health
services. CHD interventions provide high impact, life-saving
interventions for child survival including measles vaccination.
While the first round has been conducted the second round is at risk
due to a lack of funding especially in South Central. Already
outbreaks of measles have been reported in some areas with high IDP
populations.
Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC): Contributing to the high number of
maternal deaths in Somalia, there is a severe lack of access to services
in cases of obstetric complications with only 20% of all deliveries
conducted by skilled birth attendants. The lack of trained staff is even
more severe in displaced communities where access to services is
reduced.
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Guidelines
Key
technical guidelines for emergency preparedness and response in
health
See further WHO technical resources for use in emergencies
Related links
Latest
Somalia Humanitarian Overview
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