World Health Organization alerts on diarrhoea outbreak in Horn of Africa - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said that recurring drought, insufficient hygiene and ongoing regional conflict were driving a deadly outbreak of acute watery diarrhoea (AWD) across the Horn of Africa. WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic, said in a statement that more than 50,000 cases of AWD had been recorded in the region this year, resulting in over 700 deaths in Djibouti and Somalia.
He said: ``a clinical form of deadly diarrhoeal disease, AWD, can last several hours or days, depriving the body of water and salts that are necessary for survival. Most people who die from diarrhoea succumb to severe dehydration and fluid loss'.

Jasarevic stated that reports from the health ministry in Djibouti confirmed that the incidence of AWD had rapidly spread across the country, more than doubling since last year with 5,000 cases announced in 2011 alone'.

He also noted that the number of cases was likely to be under-reported as not all were being detected.

The WHO official, however, said that prevention and contingency planning from the WHO and the health ministry was already having an impact in Djibouti, with both entities providing training for health workers, pre-positioning oral rehydration salts and essential medicines, and chlorinating and monitoring water supplies.

``WHO had also supplied five emergency kits for diarrhoea and cholera and they will arrive shortly,' he added.

The UN health agency said that the spread of AWD was being facilitated by the overall situation in the Horn of Africa, noting that, ``recurring drought in both Djibouti and neighbouring countries was weakening the population and exposing it to contagion'.

It also stated that 54,000 cases of AWD had been reported in south-central Somalia, resulting in 795 deaths, while the outbreak of the disease was also on an upward trend in the all five refugee camps at the Dadaab complex in Kenya.

Pana 23/11/2011