WHO provides emergency health services to internally displaced persons in South Sudan

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday said WHO and its partners are racing to cope with the health needs of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in northeastern South Sudan, where fighting continues and the humanitarian situation remains dire.

In February 2014, WHO categorized South Sudan's health crisis as a "Grade 3",the highest level of humanitarian emergency.

According to WHO, since August more than 10, 000 people have arrived to the Malakal protection-of-civilians site in Upper Nile State, stemming from a month-long aid blockade to the region. The influx brought the total number of asylum seekers in the site to 46,567, with families crammed together with little or no access to safe water or sanitation.

"Malakal is now a home for thousands of South Sudanese and overcrowding easily results in water contamination and diseases like dysentery, bloody diarrhea, hepatitis E and cholera," said Allan Mpairwe, Head of Outbreaks and Disasters Management at WHO in South Sudan.

Given the vulnerability of their situation, WHO said there is an urgent need to strengthen coordination mechanisms to scale up the health services, provision of water, sanitation and hygiene services to prevent disease outbreaks.

"There is a serious need of health care services and access to clean drinking water and sanitation. WHO and health cluster partners are racing to ensure supplies are available to prevent infections and the spread of diseases, especially in vulnerable populations like children, pregnant women and the disabled," Mpairwe added.

Besides cholera and other water-borne diseases, malaria, measles and polio are other significant public health threats to IDPs. In response to the rapid influx, additional clinics and outreaches have been opened in order to improve access to prevention, screening and treatment of these serious threats.

WHO has supported the health cluster partners to vaccinate over 37,000 IDPs with the oral cholera vaccine during the first round and the second round is expected to begin on September 1.

WHO and partners are also responding to a cholera outbreak, which has affected more than 1,600 people and resulted in 43 deaths from May to August 15 in South Sudan's Juba and Bor counties.

The WHO Representative's Office in South Sudan will continue to support the Ministry of Health and health cluster partners at the central and subnational level to strengthen health services to deliver effective, safe, quality interventions to those in need. Endit