HIGHLIGHTS
In June 2016, health cluster partners delivered primary and secondary health care services to 1.5 million people including women, children and Internally Displaced Persons.
The most common causes of illness in June included malaria, anemia, suspected whooping cough, skin disease, Urinary Tract Infection, Upper Respiratory Tract Infection, eye diseases/infections, Acute Watery Diarrhea and suspected measles.
Cases of Acute Watery Diarrhoea (AWD) are still being reported in Belethawo district. During the reporting period, 465 cases and three deaths were reported. 249 cases were children below 5 years and 205 were females.
WHO, UNICEF, Qatar Charity and the Federal Ministry of Health airlifted various emergency medical supplies to Hiran region for the AWD/Cholera outbreak response.
The Water and Vector-Borne Diseases Working Group was formed in June. Its goal is to strengthen the capacity of humanitarian actors in prevention, reduction and timely response to water and vector-borne disease outbreaks.
Background to the Somalia Crisis
The health sector in Somalia is still in a critical situation with one of the worst health indicators in the world. With a total population of 12.3 million people, of whom 1.1 million are internally displaced. Only 42 percent of children below five years receive Pentavalent vaccination while 46 percent receive Measles vaccination. The un-der-five mortality is 137 per 1000 live births, maternal mortality ratio stands at 732 per 100 000 live births. So-malia is also one of the Acute Watery Diarrhoea/Cholera-endemic countries in the World. Effective coordination of health interventions and timely information sharing are fundamental to enhance provision of emergency health services. The Health Cluster is coordinating the humanitarian health response of over 80 partners in So-malia. Regular meetings, continuous, updates on health status, needs assessments and response to service provi-sion gaps are some of the activities of the cluster. Inter-cluster coordination is active and promotes collaboration with other clusters particularly WASH , Nutrition and Emergency Shelter. In 2015, a population of over 2.3 million people received health care from health cluster partners at community, primary and secondary health care levels.