WHO boosts response in Eastern Africa amid looming health crisis

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday that it is stepping up its response to the impending health catastrophe in eastern Africa, which is also experiencing severe food shortages.

The region’s health hazards are rising as access to healthcare is getting worse, according to Ibrahima Soce Fall, WHO Assistant Director-General for Emergency Response.

“The cost of inaction is high. While the clear priority is to prevent people from starving, we must simultaneously strengthen our health response to prevent disease and save lives,” Fall said in a statement issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya.

The WHO held a two-day conference earlier this week in Nairobi to coordinate with other UN agencies and partners and prepare its response across the seven countries affected by the health emergency — Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda.

The UN health agency said that it is establishing a centre in Nairobi from which it would manage the delivery of life-saving medical supplies to where they are most needed and coordinate the response.

These items, according to the statement, include medications, immunizations, as well as the materials and tools required to treat extremely malnourished children.

The effects of the pandemic, rising worldwide food and fuel costs, violence, extreme weather events brought on by climate change, and the region’s acute food insecurity, according to the WHO, have all contributed to the region’s greatest food insecurity in 40 years.

The UN health agency stated that the main goals of its emergency response are to ensure that the affected communities have access to basic medical care, to treat severely malnourished children, and to stop, identify, and contain infectious disease outbreaks.

In order to promptly identify and respond to disease outbreaks, WHO stated that it is collaborating with the ministries of health in the impacted countries to establish effective disease monitoring systems.