Since May 2018, Ururka Bisha Cas (the Red Crescent Society in Somaliland, SRCS) has been active in community based surveillance (CBS), aiming at early detection and response to potential outbreaks. In rural Somaliland, infrastructure and access to health care is poor, and giving community based volunteers the means to alert when someone is sick with symptoms of epidemic-prone diseases is of vital importance to detect and respond to outbreaks. In May 2019, there was an increase in reports of diarrhoea coming from communities. Thanks to the reports from volunteers, SRCS detected the increase early and were able to alert the Ministry of Health and Development (MoHD) and respond.
Read the full case study here!