MSF health promotion teams are actively seeking out new arrivals in Dagahaley to provide medical screening and facilitate referrals for those in urgent need of medical care. “We are ready to support with launching the much-needed vaccinations in Dagahaley camp, where we are the main healthcare provider.” “A targeted measles and mass cholera vaccination campaign in Dadaab camps and the surrounding communities is now required to prevent large-scale outbreaks and save lives”, says Guadarrama. Enhancing cholera prevention measures, including cholera vaccination, is even more critical as Kenya has reported ongoing outbreaks in six counties. Previous measles vaccinations in the Dadaab camps will provide some protection to children but can still prove life-threatening for new arrivals who are unlikely to have been vaccinated. Last week, MSF teams recorded three measles cases and two suspected cases of cholera in Dagahaley, one of the three refugee camps that make up the Dadaab Refugee Complex. “Even a few isolated cases of measles and cholera can cause a full-blown outbreak in overcrowded camp settings, where clean drinking water is scarce and sanitation and hygiene are poor.” “With low vaccination coverage in Somalia, and no system in place to receive and screen the newly arrived people in Kenya, infectious diseases can spread rapidly, putting people living in and around the camps, particularly children, at heightened risk of getting ill,” says Adrian Guadarrama, MSF’s deputy programme manager for Kenya. Many of those arriving are coming from southern Somalia, where measles and cholera outbreaks have occurred recently. People from Somalia are escaping a crippling drought, violence and continuing conflict. MSF is calling on the UN Refugee Agency and Kenyan authorities to ramp up humanitarian support and urgently launch vaccination campaigns. The camps, home to more than 233,000 refugees, have seen thousands of people arrive since January, with hundreds more arriving every week. Living conditions in Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Complex are worsening with a high risk of disease outbreaks, warns Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).
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