16 September 2020 – Somalia is no stranger to emergencies. For decades, Somalis have passed down to younger generations their rich, vibrant culture, along with mechanisms to cope with all kinds of challenges they have faced over the years. Their resilience and Somalia’s health system have been tested yet again in the last 6 months ─ this time...

30 August 2020 – For 3 days during a blazing Mogadishu summer, across 17 of Banadir’s districts, around 2500 women and 790 men pulled on their masks and sat cautiously at a safe distance from each other to undergo refresher training. They were preparing for no ordinary feat – conducting a health campaign that will see them offering around 400 000 children...

Facing a virus while setting up data systems to fight the virus  18 August 2020 – “You’re not a laboratory expert! Why do you have to go to the laboratory during these pandemic times?” Samira asked her husband, Mohamed Yare, with a hint of agitation in her voice. Thirty-one-year-old Mohamed Yare, who serves as WHO’s National Polio Surveillance Data...

9 August 2020 – The health system of any country needs a surveillance system that can collect information on and detect alerts of epidemic-prone diseases. When a number of cases threatens to turn into an outbreak or epidemic, the surveillance system sounds an alarm that triggers a chain of immediate public health interventions. Somalia's Early...

29 July 2020 – In the recent past, 25-year-old Zahra Mohamud* had visited the Hawadle maternal and child health centre in Hargeisa regularly to have her older son Ibrahim* vaccinated against the most common childhood diseases. However, since the COVID-19 outbreak in Somalia, Zahra has been afraid to take her 7-month-old second son Jama* for...

While the COVID-19 response dominates community health concerns, every missed opportunity for vaccination puts the fragile gains made against polio in Somalia at risk of being undone Community surveillance teams for COVID-19 and acute flaccid paralysis speak to households about any individuals with symptoms in their area. The Somali polio team is currently...

13 July 2020 – “I had heard of diseases like Ebola before but thankfully they had never reached Somalia. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck countries around the world this year, my heart sank. When I saw how quickly COVID-19 was spreading, I thought Somalis would be in trouble. Other countries were beginning to go into lockdown everywhere and we...

During his visit to De Martino Hospital in Mogadishu United Nations Secretary General’s Special Representative to Somalia Mr James Swan with WHO Representative Dr Sk. Md Mamunur Rahman Malik stands with health care workers and praises their tireless efforts in the fight against COVID-19 2 July 2020, Mogadishu – On a visit to the major tertiary hospital in...

17 June 2020 – The current pandemic caused by COVID-19 has strained the fragile health system in Somalia as the number of cases increases. Despite some early signs that the virus spread may be slowing down in its capital city Mogadishu and in major urban centres, cases continue to grow at subnational level as transmission spreads. The lockdown...

Mogadishu, 18 June 2020 – The Delegation of the European Union (EU) to Somalia conducted another special flight at the request of WHO in Somalia to airlift lifesaving medicine and other emergency hospital supplies to Beletweyne, as well as medical and laboratory supplies to Hargeisa and Garowe. These flights took place between 11 and 12 June...