31 May 2022 – The World Health Organization (WHO) is partnering with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) to sustain the COVID-19 response and essential services at targeted health care facilities, combined with community-based interventions.

These focused and extensive health interventions will be carried out by WHO in Yemen over the next 10 months, with US$ 10.86 million in total project funding from KSrelief. Interventions are being guided by vulnerability assessessments of exacerbating factors such as morbidity, environmental hazards and social determinants of health. The interventions will follow 2 reinforcing tracks of action:

Providing equipment, medicines and materials worth US$ 6.23 million to limit transmission of the COVID-19 response in Yemen and help health authorities to reduce the number of cases referred to health facilities; and

Providing equipment and medicines worth US$ 2.17 million to sustain and improve the quality of essential services of health facilities and laboratories in priority districts of Yemen. 

Project interventions focus on sustaining the COVID-19 response in Yemen to limit transmission of the virus and help health authorities reduce cases referred to health facilities. This grant will build on existing actions and services currently being undertaken to improve the COVID-19 response and expand programme delivery. These interventions should directly or indirectly benefit some 4.5 million of 7.3 million people who are targeted by Yemen's Humanitarian Response Plan. 

Project interventions to sustain essential health services will focus partially on strengthening epidemiological and laboratory surveillance to reduce the prevalence of outbreaks. The needed equipment, supplies and medicines will also be procured for essential health services spanning treatment of noncommunicable diseases, general care, child health, reproductive and maternal health, dialysis, and other services. These interventions should directly or indirectly benefit some 2.5 million people. Interventions will aim to improve prevention, response and referral capacities of primary and secondary health care facilities that are overwhelmed with patients requiring critical care. Community-based interventions will also be expanded to reduce these pressures on health care facilities across Yemen.

All project activities will be implemented in close coordination with the Ministry of Public Health in Sana’a and Aden. WHO will ensure their sustainability through coordination mechanisms and capacity-building with national public and civil society organizations. WHO Yemen will work closely with all stakeholders and partners to design specific interventions and monitor pre-determined indicators. 

Senior staff and management at the WHO country office and the regional and headquarters level will also work with senior officials of the Ministry to ensure that resources are utilized appropriately and that lessons learned are shared with stakeholders and partners.  

“The provision of essential services at health care facilities across Yemen remains very challenging, as the majority of Yemen’s 30.7 million people are in need of of these services,” said Dr Adham Dr Adham Rashad Ismail Abdel-Moneim, WHO Representative to Yemen. “These interventions to be carried out by WHO, in partnership with  KSrelief, over the next 10 months will be of critical benefit to millions of people across Yemen, even as only about half the country’s health facilities are fully functioning at present.”

31 May 2022 – The World Health Organization (WHO), in partnership with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), will install lifesaving oxygen stations in 5 main hospitals located in priority southern governorates of Hadramout, Shabwa, Marib and Abyan.

The 5 oxygen stations will be a critical support to hospitals for administering anaesthesia and treating critical medical emergencies, including severe cases of COVID-19, major trauma, cardiac arrest and shock. All require an uninterrupted oxygen supply to prevent permanent organ damage or even death of many patients. 

“A sustainable oxygen supply has critical importance for operating theatres, intensive care units and COVID-19 treatment centres in hospitals and other health facilities,” said Dr Adham Dr Adham Rashad Ismail Abdel-Moneim, WHO Representative to Yemen. “Health facilities across Yemen often cannot access oxygen supplies due to cost, infrastructure and logistical barriers – resulting in otherwise preventable deaths.”

More than 40 000 seriously ill patients are projected to benefit from these oxygen stations that should be fully installed by September 2022. Upon installing the oxygen stations at all 5 hospitals, WHO will train their personnel to utilize, monitor and maintain them efficiently.

Once installed, the oxygen stations will help meet growing shortages of affordable and sustainable oxygen supplies in Yemen, linked to the country’s ongoing economic and health crisis. This would be one step closer towards ensuring the delivery of sustainable health care services. 

“These hospitals and other health facilities face a high influx of under-reported COVID-19 cases and deaths,” said Dr Abdel-Moneim. “The stations will help ensure their functionality and the continuity of essential health services that are primarily focused on  COVID-19 case management, trauma care and treatment of respiratory distress.”

Sana’a and Aden, 29 May 2022 – Every person should have access to the health care they need. That’s why in Yemen, the health authorities, in collaboration with WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank, are reviewing the Minimum Service Package (MSP).

The first MSP was developed in 2017 during a difficult period of intensifying conflict. The package was rapidly developed based on the Disease Control Priorities (DCP3) package and rolled out by the authorities, WHO and UNICEF through the Emergency Health and Nutrition Project with the World Bank’s support, to more than 2000 health facilities in Yemen.

After 5 years of successful implementation, the package is undergoing a rational, needs-based, pragmatic and evidence-based review to determine the essential services required for the health system in Yemen. 

The review will update the package of services provided at each level of care (primary, secondary and tertiary) to ensure services are based on the disease burden and relevant to the needs of communities. High-impact interventions will be prioritized, and the package will ensure a continuum of services from prevention through to diagnosis; treatment and rehabilitation is provided at each level of care.

Taking a collaborative, evidence-based approach

The review is currently under way and is expected to be completed by September 2022. Already, the review process has involved intensive consultation, collaboration, engagement and an inclusive approach. 

In March and April, workshops with authorities in Sana’a and Aden, brought together more than 100 stakeholders to discuss line-by-line every service offered under the new package. Other stakeholders have also been engaged in thematic discussions on minimum services, complementarity and referrals, which were attended virtually by more than 70 representatives from 30 Health Cluster partners in February. MSP documentation is being made available in Arabic and English to ensure meaningful stakeholder engagement. 

In addition, the review is adopting an evidence-based approach, consolidating data from national programmes, the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, and expert experience and validation to better understand the disease burden in Yemen. This analysis has pointed to the importance of continuously strengthening the health information system to ensure reliable data are available to inform policy decisions.

Highlighting the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases in Yemen

For the first time, through the MSP review process, the high burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in Yemen has been highlighted. This has led to 'quick wins' to tackle the increasing burden of NCDs: 

Health authorities have agreed to appoint a full-time NCD focal point to facilitate coordination.

The importance of taking preventive action on NCDs at the primary health care level has been agreed. 

The draft MSP 2022 lists human papillomavirus vaccination for girls, hepatitis B birth-dose vaccination, and screening and early detection of common breast and cervical cancers in line with regional and global WHO strategies and goals.

Building a stronger health system

Going forward, for tangible health system strengthening, implementation of the forthcoming MSP will require clear action plans, a spirit of teamwork, more coordination, and ongoing support. The next steps are to compile the outputs from the recent workshops with the authorities, to determine lists of quality standards, essential laboratory services, equipment and medicines for each level of care, and to proceed with costing of the package.

In rolling out the updated package, continuous action will be taken to engage district and governorate health offices and field authorities to conduct domain-specific workshops e.g. on maternal and neonatal health, child health, NCDs and environmental health, and to invest in strengthening the health information system.