Somalia faces diphtheria surge amid vaccine shortages and aid cuts

Diphtheria cases and deaths have risen sharply this year in Somalia, where the response has been curtailed by vaccine shortages and U.S. aid cuts, Somali officials said.

MOGADISHU — Diphtheria cases and deaths have risen sharply this year in Somalia, where the response has been curtailed by vaccine shortages and U.S. aid cuts, Somali officials said.

More than 1,600 cases, including 87 deaths, have been recorded, up from 838 cases and 56 deaths in all of 2024, said Hussein Abdukar Muhidin, the general director of Somalia‘s National Institute of Health.

Diphtheria, a bacterial disease that causes swollen glands, breathing problems and fever and mostly affects children, is preventable with a vaccine that became widely available in the mid-20th century.

Childhood immunisation rates in Somalia have improved over the past decade, but hundreds of thousands of children are still not fully vaccinated.

After fleeing fighting between government forces and Islamist militants in the central Somalia town of Ceeldheere three months ago, all four of Deka Mohamed Ali’s children, none of whom was vaccinated, contracted diphtheria. Her 9-year-old daughter recovered, but her 8-year-old son died and two toddlers are now being treated at a hospital in the capital Mogadishu.