Supporting the provision of health care during the rainy season
11 November 2011 -- The rainy season has started in the Horn of Africa. Although the rains will have long-term positive effects on food production, the rains also bring increased risk of mosquito-borne illnesses such as malaria and dengue and waterborne illnesses such as cholera and other severe diarrhoeal diseases. In addition, heavy rains are washing out roads, making it more difficult for health workers to reach their posts, medical supplies to be delivered, and rapid response teams to investigate reports of disease outbreaks.
Weekly Health Update
Media
Updates
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20 July 2011
Building up health response in the Horn of Africa
20 July 2011 -- In the worst-affected areas of the Horn of Africa, child malnutrition rates range between 15 and 45%, and are expected to rise. Lack of water, low immunization coverage and precarious sanitation resulting from displacements combine to increase the risk of communicable diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and measles. Outbreaks of acute watery diarrhoea and measles have already been reported in Djibouti and Ethiopia. On 25–29 July, UNICEF, WHO and the Kenyan Ministry of Health will vaccinate an estimated 215 000 children against polio and measles along the Somali-Kenyan border and in the Dadaab refugee camps.
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14 July 2011
Impact on the health of communities in the Horn of Africa
In the Horn of Africa, increasingly frequent drought episodes punctuated by ever shorter recovery periods have exhausted the coping capacity of communities in a region where resources and services are already scarce. The resulting depletion of household resources is having a serious impact on the general health and nutritional status of the population.
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8 July 2011
Drought and food crisis in the Horn of Africa
The Horn of Africa is facing what has been described as the worst drought in over half a century. Around ten million people in Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia and Uganda are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. In Somalia, where the drought is compounded by the escalating conflict, tens of thousands of people have fled to the neighbouring countries of Ethiopia and Kenya, where many of them are living in overcrowded camps without adequate health care, clean water or proper sanitation. Malnutrition rates are soaring, and the low vaccination coverage of children is leading to concerns over possible communicable disease outbreaks.
