26 March 2017 – The number of cholera cases reported by the Ministry of Health in Somalia has reached a cumulative 17 211 cases and 388 deaths with a case fatality rate of 2.25%, which is nearly 4 times as many as were recorded for the same period in 2016, and surpasses the total number of cases recorded in 2016.
While the AWD/ cholera epidemic has been controlled in Hiran, Banadir, Middle Shebelle and Galgadud, most of the recently reported cases were from inaccessible villages in Bay and Gedo regions.
The Ministry of Health and the health cluster led by WHO continue to collaborate with partners and health authorities on response and prevention activities around the country.
In order to address the inaccessibility of cholera treatment centres for people in inaccessible villages in Bay region, the Ministry has deployed doctors and health workers who were trained at Banadir hospital in Mogadishu on case management and surveillance. This is in addition to the 20 health workers already deployed in Bakool and Bay region.
Somalia is at the brink of another famine, after consecutive seasons of poor rainfall and lack of water have killed livestock and crops. This has left around 6.2 out of 12.3 million people in Somalia in need of humanitarian assistance. Nearly 3 million people face food insecurity and nearly 5.5 million people are at risk of contracting water-borne diseases. Hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people are also on the move in search of food, water, shelter and medical care.
Some of the key needs at present are safe food and water for the affected communities, essential medicines at treatment centres and funds to continue the training and deployment of health workers to the most hard-hit areas.