Day: August 23, 2022

U.N. agencies warn that severe hunger is sliding toward famine-like conditions in the Horn of Africa, particularly in Somalia, as four years of consecutive drought have wiped out peoples’ ability to grow the crops they need to feed themselves.

The World Food Program reports up to 22 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are facing severe hunger. It says hunger and the death of millions of livestock have forced more than 7 million people to leave their homes in search of food, water and grazing pasture for their cattle.

The WFP warns these figures are likely to grow, and conditions will continue to deteriorate, as poor rainfall is forecast for the fifth year in a row.

The WFP regional director for East Africa, Michael Dunford, recently returned from a visit to Somalia and northern Kenya.

Speaking from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, Dunford says he was particularly struck by the dire situation in Somalia where more than 7 million people are facing a humanitarian crisis. He says this is the worst situation he has seen in the 21 years he has been working for WFP.

“We have a real risk of famine. It has not been declared yet, but already there are over 200,000 people in famine-like conditions, catastrophic levels of food insecurity, with another 1.4 [million] on the edge. So, unless we are able to continue to advocate to raise funding, to scale up our operations, then we will have, I fear, a famine to deal with,” he said.

Dunford says the specter of the 2011 famine in Somalia, which killed 250,000 people, half of them children, looms large over this current crisis. He says WFP is scaling up to reach 8.5 million people across Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. He says $416 million is needed to provide lifesaving aid for the rest of the year.

Malnutrition remains high across the Horn of Africa. The U.N. children’s fund reports 10 million children under the age of five are acutely malnourished. It adds that nearly 1.8 million face severe wasting, a condition that is life-threatening.

UNICEF spokesman James Elder says millions of children in the Horn of Africa are literally one disease away from catastrophe.

“When you have got these terrifyingly high levels of severe acute malnutrition in children — and that is 1.8 million of those children in that state right now in the Horn, 1.8 million when you have got those — and then you combine it with a simple outbreak in [a] disease like a cholera, like diarrhea, then you see child mortality rates rise at a petrifying speed,” he said.

Elder notes the number of people without access to safe water in the region has risen from nine million in February to 15 million now.

UNICEF has revised its emergency appeal from $119 million to nearly $250 million. This reflects the growing needs across the region.

Source: Voice of America

With the burden of cardiovascular disease, mental and neurological disorders and diabetes rising in the region, African health ministers on Tuesday, endorsed a new strategy to boost access to the diagnosis, treatment and care of severe noncommunicable diseases.

The health ministers, gathering for the seventy-second session of the UN World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for Africa in Lomé, Togo, adopted the strategy, known as PEN-PLUS.

That plan will be implemented as a regional strategy to address severe noncommunicable diseases at first-level referral health facilities. The strategy supports building the capacity of district hospitals and other first-level referral facilities to diagnose and manage severe noncommunicable diseases.

Africa’s hefty chronic disease burden

Severe noncommunicable diseases are chronic conditions that lead to high levels of disability and death among children, adolescents and young adults. In the worst cases, patients live no longer than a year after diagnosis. In Africa, the most prevalent severe noncommunicable diseases include sickle cell disease, type 1 and insulin-dependent type 2 diabetes, rheumatic heart disease, cardiomyopathy, severe hypertension and moderate to severe and persistent asthma.

“Africa is grappling with an increasingly hefty burden of chronic diseases whose severe forms are costing precious lives that could be saved with early diagnosis and care,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

She went on to say that the strategy adopted today is pivotal in placing effective care within the reach of patients and “marks a major step in improving the health and wellbeing of millions of people in the region.”

In most parts of Africa, severe noncommunicable diseases are treated at health facilities in large cities. This exacerbates health inequities, as it puts care beyond the reach of most rural, peri-urban and lower-income patients. Moreover, these urban facilities often lack the capacity and resources to effectively manage severe noncommunicable diseases.

Standardized treatment packages

The new strategy urges countries to institute standardized programmes to tackle chronic and severe noncommunicable diseases by ensuring that essential medicines, technologies and diagnostics are available and accessible at district hospitals.

According to a 2019 WHO survey, only 36 per cent of countries in the African region reported having essential medicines for noncommunicable diseases in public hospitals. Governments should ensure that people seeking care in private hospitals can access services for severe noncommunicable diseases.

Additionally, the strategy recommends that countries should bolster the protocols for prevention, care and treatment of chronic noncommunicable diseases through training and strengthening the skills and knowledge of health workers.

Noncommunicable diseases account for most out-of-pocket spending by patients in Africa and due to their chronic nature often lead to catastrophic health expenditures. By offering noncommunicable disease care as a package of services available at primary and district health facilities, patients will find their expenses decrease as they spend less money on transportation, lodging in cities and less time in commuting to the health facilities.

The PEN-PLUS strategy builds on existing WHO initiatives for integrated detection, diagnosis, treatment, and care of noncommunicable diseases in primary health care facilities. It has shown promising results in Liberia, Malawi, and Rwanda, with a significant increase in the number of patients accessing treatment for severe noncommunicable diseases and, a concomitant improvement in outcomes for these patients.

Source: United Nations